Pollard Allegedly Barred from Receiving Packages

Judy Siegel - The Jerusalem Post - February 1, 1993

Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying for Israel and serving a life term at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, has apparently been barred from receiving packages.

A book on biblical history, written by a former Soviet prisoner of Zion who lives in Bat Yam and published by the Ministry of Defense Publishing House and the Investment Company of Bank Hapoalim, has been returned to the author unopened. The prison authorities stamped the package: "Return to Sender: No Package Authorization on File."

"I was shocked," Eliezer Shulman, the author and sender, told The Jerusalem Post yesterday. "That isn't the proper way to treat prisoners in a democratic country like the US."

Shulman was exiled in 1940 to Siberia for his Zionist activities and not allowed to emigrate to Israel until 35 years later.

Nehemia Maccabi, cultural coordinator of the Association of Former Prisoners of Zion, added: "This is exactly what occurred when we sent Bibles and other Jewish books to Prisoners of Zion like Sharansky, Nudel and Slepak in Soviet prisons. The books were returned to us unopened and stamped in the same way."

Shulman has been corresponding with Pollard, who has asked to be pardoned by President Bill Clinton. The 180-page, English-language book Shulman sent Pollard, The Sequence of Events in the Old Testament, puts a historical perspective on biblical events, based on the texts themselves and on Jewish commentaries.