Text: Jonathan Pollard's Letter to PM Olmert:
Who is stealing the money?

J4JPnews Release - March 25, 2008

To: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert From: Jonathan Pollard

March 24, 2008 B"H

VIA FACSIMILE and REGISTERED MAIL

 
Mr. Prime Minister,

RE: Government's refusal to provide an accounting of its claims of support

References: our letter of October 29, 2007; your letter of January 21, 2008; our letter of February 13, 2008; your letter of March 9, 2008

As you are well aware, in the 23 years that I have been in captivity, I have never received one cent from the Government of Israel.

Even though, as an officially recognized Israeli agent, I am entitled to full government support and financial compensation, I have received nothing.

Similarly, my wife Esther has never received a single cent from the Government of Israel, nor any kind of support, even when she was seriously ill with cancer.

Yet your office continues to lie and to disseminate official government statements declaring that my wife and I and my "close associates" are receiving "full support in every possible respect" from the Government of Israel.

In attempt to stop the lies, I asked my attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, to officially request a detailed accounting from your office, which she did on October 29th, 2007. Three months later, we received your reply dated January 21st 2008, which contemptuously dismissed our request for information by briefly repeating the same lies and evasions.

I therefore instructed my attorney to write to you again, and this time to ask specific questions. In a four-page letter dated February 13th 2008, my attorney explicitly asked you to substantiate your claims with detailed responses (and signed receipts). Or to acknowledge the truth, by confirming in writing that

"Throughout the 23 years that Jonathan Pollard has been in prison in America, neither he nor his wife, Mrs. Esther Pollard, has ever received any monetary support whatsoever from the Government of Israel."

In response to the 22 specific questions posed by my attorney in her letter to you (as referenced above) we recently received a reply from you dated March 9th 2008, consisting of 3 sentences and signed by your legal counsel, Shulamit Barnea Fargo. The full text of your letter reads:

"I have nothing to say but to refer you again to my letter of 21.01.08 and to direct you to information which the State provided in the framework of various lawsuits which were filed concerning your client.

Your claims in your letter are for the most part, baseless, and the style in which they are written is offensive.

I do not see any place for providing the information which you requested, out of fear that this will damage Mr. Pollard's welfare and the efforts of the State of Israel to assist him."

It is obvious, Mr. Prime Minister, that if the Government had any proof to substantiate the lies your office is disseminating about support for me and my wife, you would have no need to evade the questions my attorney asked.

Your claim that information on this matter has been provided to the High Court of Israel is simply not credible. You know as well as I do, there is nothing in the Government's responses to the court, except promises of support which have never been fulfilled! The Government of Israel has repeatedly admitted to the High Court that it owes me and my wife full support, but in spite of these admissions, it has never discharged any of its obligations to us.

Worse still, your claim that responding to my attorney's questions will "damage [my] welfare and the State's efforts on [my] behalf" is a blatant lie. What "efforts"?! It does not take 23 years to secure the release of an agent held by Israel's closest friend and ally! By now it is obvious to everyone that the Government of Israel is not serious about seeking my release, but is hoping that time will take its toll and "solve" the Pollard problem permanently, G-d forbid!

If Israel were serious about seeking my release, you would not be relating to me and my wife so mercilessly and lying about it! My wife is homeless and penniless. I am dependent upon friends for money to make phone calls and to buy basic necessities in prison. This is not the way the Government of Israel treats an agent whom it intends to bring home!

Mr. Prime Minister, my wife and I would like to understand what benefit you personally derive by lying about the support which the Government of Israel is required by law to provide, but which is being withheld from us.

If, as you insist, your Government is allocating resources for me and my wife, but we are not receiving them, then who is getting the money? Are the funds (which you claim are intended for us) being misappropriated by your office and used illegally elsewhere? While we do not know for certain what kind of corruption is going on, we do know that something smells very bad.

In conclusion: your response to my request for a detailed accounting is insulting and unacceptable. I intend to take whatever action is necessary to force the truth to come to light.

Admitting the truth officially - which all of Israel already knows unofficially - is the least you owe an agent who served the State faithfully and who, in return, has spent 23 years of his life in captivity.

Yours truly,

Jonathan Pollard

Cc
Ms. Shulamit Barnea Fargo, PM's Legal Counsel - Fax no: 02-561-0618
MK Zevulun Orlev, Chairman Knesset Oversight Committee - Fax no: 02-6753709
Judge Micha Lindenstrauss, State Comptroller - Fax 02-666-5204 and 02-666-5150
Mr. Oved Yechezkiel, Cabinet Secretary - Fax: 02-563-2580