Larry Dub Blasts Jerusalem Post Regarding Melchior Visit

From:

Larry Dub, Esq. [ Attorney for Jonathan Pollard]

To:

Editor - Jerusalem Post

Re:

Inaccurate, Damaging Article "Pollard's Wife Rejects Melchior Visit"
[Jlem Post, Friday September 10, 1999]

September 10, 1999

Sir,

I am writing to call your attention to the inaccurate and damaging presentation in the article "Pollard's Wife Rejects Melchior Visit" (09/10/99). The facts are so distorted that they bear no resemblance to reality. I would ask that you make the following factual corrections in print.

Mrs. Esther Pollard did not reject a meeting with Minister Melchior or any Israeli Minister, as the above article erroneously reports.
Nor did "government officials" ever contact Mrs. Pollard or myself to arrange any such meetings, as was reported.
The only phone call I received was from a secretary of Minister Melchior. The call was made to me at midnight of the same day that Jonathan Pollard's petition versus Ehud Barak was filed. The secretary said that Minister Melchior demanded a meeting with Mrs. Pollard the following day. I refused to discuss any meetings at midnight, and asked to be contacted at my office during normal business hours.
Mrs. Pollard was not even aware, at that point, that a demand for an immediate meeting was being made of her, and I certainly did not accept such a rude and inconsiderate offer on her behalf.
After 4 months of the government's total silence, a midnight call to demand a photo-op meeting with Mrs. Pollard and a lightweight Minister, who has no knowledge of the case and no standing in Washington, is not a serious or reasonable offer on the part of the government, as the article falsely implies.
In spite of the fact that no meetings were arranged during that midnight call, the next day Minister Melchior sent out a patently false press release announcing that meetings had been arranged with both Jonathan and Esther Pollard - clearly a publicity stunt designed to assuage Israeli public opinion.
To reiterate: no meetings were officially offered by the government and none were officially accepted or rejected by myself or my client. Jonathan and Esther Pollard's comments to the media were only their reaction to the false press release sent out by Melchior's office.
Mrs. Pollard spoke with your reporter and carefully explained all of the above. Nevertheless the Jlem Post article (09/10/99) turned history on its head and reported none of the above, but rather presented the government's mean-spirited publicity stunt as if it had been some reasonable offer of meetings with the Pollards.
The majority of the quotes in the above article are wrongly attributed to Mrs. Pollard, even though [the paper] was offered irrefutable proof that the statements were made by her husband, Jonathan Pollard.
In this article (and also in the last one on the Pollard petition - Jlem Post 09/08/99) both my client and his wife are done a great disservice by the article's wrongly attributing not only my client's statements but also his petition to his wife. The petition filed by Jonathan Pollard is falsely reported and described as if it were Mrs. Pollard's petition.
Additionally, the article falsely portrays Mrs. Pollard as accepting or rejecting visits and /or making decisions that can in fact only be made by Mr. Pollard. This is a complete distortion of reality, and egregiously mean-spirited .
At no time did my client, or myself ever "demand meetings with cabinet ministers" as falsely reported in the article. Neither does Jonathan Pollard's petition to the High Court of Justice make any such demand.

In summary: a twisted, untruthful and pejorative picture of both Mr. and Mrs. Pollard and the case has been presented as if it were fact. The Government of Israel, on the other hand, is portrayed as being quite reasonable and responsible in its treatment of my client. This is standing history and truth on its head.

In light of the fact that we have irrefutable proof of the falseness of the points made in the article and of the distorted picture of events that resulted, we are presenting you with the opportunity to correct the record and ask that you do so as quickly as as possible. Your immediate response in print is anticipated and appreciated.

Yours very truly
Larry Dub

cc Jonathan and Esther Pollard

P.S. The factual errors and distortion in the above article might have been avoided by reading the media releases from Justice for Jonathan Pollard office which were sent in multiple copies, by fax and by email to the Jerusalem Post. [Copies of these articles are shown as hyperlinks below.]