Pollard Letter To Sharansky:
Time To Be Honest And Resign

To: Natan and Avital Sharansky
FAX: 02-677-3719

Date: March 11, 2004
No. of Pages (incl. this one): 3

From: Jonathan Pollard 09185-016
FCI Butner, POB 1000
Butner North Carolina
USA 27509-1000

Toronto Phone: 416-781-3571
FAX: 416-781-3166
Email: pollard@jonathanpollard.org
jonathanpollard.org

---

Message:

Dear Natan,

In my letter of 19 February 2004, I wrote to you:

"It is with an overwhelming sense of weariness and a deep sense of sadness that I must tell you that Esther and I have had too many years of experience not to recognize the signs that we are seeing since you returned to Israel you appear to have been seduced into the usual establishment pattern of all talk, no actionThe urgency to actwhich you clearly understood while we were together has been replaced by delay, excuses, and futile proposals."

Since I wrote this, things have only gotten worse. Therefore I am writing to suggest that the honorable thing for you to do is to resign.

When we met in prison on 4 February 2004, I outlined to you a plan of action whose immediate implementation was essential, if you and the Government were sincere about securing my immediate release. It consisted of the formalization of a 3 point agenda which by now, you know only too well:

a)

a government policy on my case

my captivity status

prison visits from the Ambassador

In spite of your repeated promises to act immediately to implement this 3 point agenda, you continue to provide the Prime Minister with cover as he refuses to formulate a government policy on my case, and you yourself refuse to formulate one.

Similarly, you refuse to expend any effort to formalize my captivity status, which, as you well know, is the only way that my rights will be assured and the only way that the Government's obligations to me will ever be put into practice.

Instead of calling for the dissolution of the "Chevra Keddishe" - the Interministerial Committee appointed by the Prime Minister to keep me buried alive - you have teamed up with them.

You accepted the title as head of the Pollard Committee to secure my release, knowing full well that this title conferred neither the power nor the authority to do anything meaningful to secure my release. Despite our repeated warnings, you have adopted the same policies and practices of those who have prolonged my incarceration for the last 18 years.

Furthermore, without my knowledge or permission, and behind my Jerusalem attorney's back, you attempted to engage my American attorneys in unauthorized meetings with yourself and the Prime Minister. (Why the need for such subterfuge, Natan?) Thankfully, my American attorneys, sensing that something was unkosher, alerted us.

At a recent meeting of the Conference of Presidents in Jerusalem, you colluded with the Prime Minister not to reveal your appointment as the new Head of the Pollard Committee.This was the perfect time and place to announce your appointment and a renewed press for my release. Yet you and the PM deliberately dismissed the opportunity to make the announcement and to enlist the support of the Conference of Presidents. You have similarly failed to reach out to other American Jewish leaders visiting Israel in recent days.

And instead of the close cooperation and collaboration of which you assured me during our prison visit, your office complains to my Jerusalem attorney, criticizing me for expressing concerns or for trying to redirect your efforts in a constructive direction. The last message that my attorney received from your office was to order us to stop bothering you with faxes and phone calls. He was told: "The Pollards can do what they want, and we will do what we want!"

Today was the final straw! A new Pollard Law which has been drafted by your colleagues in the Knesset Lobby, was submitted today to the Government's legal counsel for approval prior to its first reading in Knesset. The proposed law calls for no relief for me, no change in the status quo of government inactivity, no government policy, no formalization of my captivity status, nothing to further my release one iota. But, it does legislate four and-a-half million shekels per year for your office for "Pollard activities". The law simultaneously stipulates that not a single cent should go directly or indirectly to assist me or my wife personally!

Natan, spare me the protest that it was the Knesset Lobby, not you, that drafted this law, etc. It is enough of an indictment that they knew your address, and exactly where to direct millions of shekels for years to come...

As head of the Committee to secure my release, it was your job to know about this law, and to see to it that it was designed to do exactly that - to secure my release - not to provide additional funds for your office. If this is the best you can do to help me, spare me!

Natan, let us cut to the chase. I no longer intend to endorse the fiction that you are actively involved in efforts to secure my release. It is time for you to resign publicly and to tell the truth. If you persist in this charade, Esther and I will no longer withhold the truth when we are publicly asked. I await a written statement of your intentions.

Deeply disappointed, I remain,

Jonathan.

cc Larry Dub