Jonathan Pollard Reacts to Supreme Court Decision
March 6, 1998 - Golan Yosifeen - Ma'ariv
Pollard: "For the Swiss agent, the Mossad took responsibility.
In my case they abandoned and betrayed me."
"I have to be free for Israel's Jubilee year. I don't have words to
express just how desperately I want to be free to come home for the
Jubilee year of the State of Israel, to give honor to our nation." So
said Jonathan Pollard yesterday in a telephone conversation from prison
in North Carolina to his wife Esther in Jerusalem.
Pollard, who is serving a life sentence in the United States for his activities on behalf of Israel, said in this conversation that the State of Israel must treat him as it would any Israeli agent and do everything in its power to free him, just as it did for the agents in the Mesha'al case and the Swiss affair. "In the Mesha'al affair and in the Swiss agent affair, the Mossad took responsibility and acted immediately, with the full backing of the government. This stands in stark contrast to my case. In my case they threw me out, abandoned me, and then betrayed me.
"I have the dubious honor of being the first agent in the world to be incriminated by the country he served. To this day the government of Israel continues to deny that I am its agent. I am also the only agent that ever had to sue his own government for recognition as an agent."
Pollard was sharply critical of the decision of the Supreme Court on Monday of this week to delay its decision on his petition asking for recognition as an Israeli agent. " We filed this petition for official status, since the minute I am officially identified as an agent, I have a right to the same treatment - immediate action and intensive protection- that the Mossad agents in Switzerland and Jordan received."
Pollard added that his prison conditions are especially difficult. "The conditions in the prison continue to deteriorate every day. My daily life hangs by a thread. They continue to bring an endless number of hard core criminals and cold-blooded murders into this prison. Prison officials are unresponsive to security concerns. They laugh at me, and tell me, "Go complain to the Mossad." These prisoners have weapons. There is a danger to life and limb every single day in this place."