Asking Jonathan Pollard About Zionism
Justice4JP Release - November 22, 2000
Jonathan Pollard's wife, Esther, recently received an email from a well-known media outlet requesting a statement about Zionism from her husband. The request and the response from the Pollards follows below. Since this was a private communication, all names and identifying features have been removed from the correspondence.
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November 22, 2000
Dear Esther Pollard, We are collecting radio clips of well known people, asking them what is their definition of Zionism in a few sentences. We want to get one from Jonathan. We are aware that this is impossible due to his circumstances and would like to know if you could get the answer from him and we would record a clip of you reading it. Let us know if this would be possible. Thank you! |
November 22, 2000
Dear Friend,
Re: Your request for a definition of Zionism by Jonathan Pollard
Several years ago - 1994 to be exact - I was in Israel doing P.R. and legal work to promote my husband's release. I received a phone call from an Israeli teenager who had seen me on the news. I have never forgotten what she said to me. We spoke in Hebrew. She said: "How can there ever be peace, when the consumate symbol of Zionism is languishing in an American prison?"
Friend, I don't think Jonathan thinks about the definition of Zionism, or any other "ism". He is a living embodiment of love of the land and people of Israel. Every painful breath that he draws today in the hell hole of an American prison where he has spent the last 16 years of his life is living Zionism. Risking his life for Israel, and losing his freedom for Israel, and continuing to love Israel in spite of the cruel way in which she has rejected and abandoned him for the last 16 years tells you more about what Jonathan Pollard thinks and how he feels than any 25 word-or-less definition.
May I also point out, Friend, that by accepting and tolerating the Israeli Government's long-standing abandonment of Jonathan Pollard, a paradigm for, and the acceptance of, a government policy of expendability has been established that potentially threatens all of Israel's five million Jews - one by one. Sadly, we are witnessing the bitter fruits of that policy as we scan the news headlines in Israel today.
Allow me to conclude, in response to your request:
Over the years we have had numerous requests for Jonathan to write essays, give speeches, make definitions, and do observations on a variety of subjects that require a fair degree of analysis and introspection. Our response typically has been that such a request to Jonathan at this time, when his life is still hanging in the balance, is akin to asking a man who is hanging on to the edge of a cliff by his fingertips to analyze and describe the view below. We always say, "First help us to get him down off of the cliff, then you can ask him questions about the view."
In any case, the bottom line is: Jonathan's attorneys have enjoined him from making any statements of any kind at this time since his case is now before the courts in America.
Yours truly,
Esther Pollard
(Mrs. Jonathan Pollard)