Pollard Files Petition Against Barak

September 8 - Yehuda Poch - The Jerusalem Post

*Prefacing Factual Corrections to article below:

  1. Jonathan Pollard is the petitioner, not Esther Pollard.
  2. Attorney Larry Dub filed the petition on behalf of his client, Jonathan Pollard
  3. Esther Pollard's only role was to accompany Dub to Supreme to file.

JERUSALEM

- Esther Pollard, wife of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, filed a petition*(see above) with the High Court of Justice yesterday morning against Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The basis for the petition is a letter from the Prime Minister's Office, dated May 11, 1998, in which former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu officially recognized Pollard as an Israeli agent.

In the petition, Esther Pollard*(see above) asked that the government relate to her husband in a manner befitting a captured agent, and not abandon him. Since Barak's election in May, according to the petition, the government "cut off all contact" with Pollard and his representatives, including attorney Larry Dub.

At a news conference yesterday, Esther Pollard stated that Netanyahu's "agreement at Wye hinged on Jonathan. Netanyahu agreed to release an extra 400 Palestinian prisoners, bringing the total to 750, in return for Jonathan's release. And Netanyahu knew well that there weren't 750 prisoners left without blood on their hands."

Yet, according to Pollard, Netanyahu was willing to compromise on this issue in return for US President Bill Clinton's agreement that Jonathan Pollard would be freed. Clinton reneged on his agreement, so Netanyahu released only common criminals.

"Now that Prime Minister Barak is releasing security prisoners," continued Pollard, "he is paying the price for Jonathan without receiving anything in return."

This is the first time the prime minister has been taken to court in order to force him to deal on an agent's behalf. The petition asks the court to order the government to release two reports - the Eban Report and the Tzur-Rottenstreich Report - which deal with Pollard's case. The petition also requests access to Pollard's intelligence service file, which is held by the Defense Ministry.

"With these documents, all the accusations that Jonathan continues to face in the American media and in official American circles can be disproven. If Israel would ever use the information in these documents for Jonathan's benefit, he wouldn't need us to defend him," said Esther Pollard.

The petition maintains "that because [Barak] has all the documents and knows the truth about [Pollard's] espionage in the US but has failed to publicize it, this has made it impossible for [Pollard] to defend himself" in the US.

"It is unbelievable to me," stated Esther Pollard, "that an Israeli agent should have to take his government to court in order to force it to act in his defense."