Jonathan Pollard Part II

 

Citizenship

Pollard applied for Israeli citizenship in 1995; the Ministry of Interior initially refused on grounds that Israel did not grant citizenship to persons who had not yet immigrated, but reversed its decision and granted the petition on November 22, 1995.

Some sources claim that Pollard then renounced his United States citizenship, was now solely an Israeli citizen, and would be deported to Israel if he were released from prison. Others continue to identify him as a U.S. citizen. According to the United States Department of State, there are no peacetime regulations in effect under 8 U.S.C. § 1481(a) (6) to empower the attorney general to process renunciations of citizenship from persons physically present in the United States, and by 8 U.S.C. § 1483, it is not possible for a person to lose U.S. citizenship while physically present in the United States except by renunciation filed with the Attorney General, or conviction of treason.

On December 30, 2020, Jonathan Pollard and his wife officially immigrated to Israel and became full Israeli citizens.

Official reactions and public pro-Pollard campaigns

In addition to the release requests by the Israeli government, there was a long-running public campaign to free Pollard. The organizers include the Pollard family, his ex-wife, Anne, and Jewish groups in the U.S. and Israel. The campaign's main points claimed that Pollard spied for an ally instead of an enemy, that his sentence was out of proportion to those given to others who committed similar crimes, and that the U.S. failed to live up to its plea bargain. Some Israeli activists compared President Bush to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders who have taken Israeli soldiers prisoner.

Some who feel the sentence was excessive claim that although Pollard pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain for himself and his wife, he was shown no leniency, and was given the maximum sentence with the exception of death; Pollard's opponents answer that Pollard violated the terms of that plea agreement even before the sentence was given.

In 1993, political science professor and Orthodox Jewish activist David Luchins organized an unsuccessful appeal to President Bill Clinton to commute Pollard's sentence. The appeal included a letter of remorse from Pollard in which he admitted violating both U.S. laws and Jewish religious tenets. Pollard later reportedly regretted his admission, suspecting that it worsened his chances for clemency. Pollard loyalists blamed Luchins, who received death threats and required federal protection for a period of time.

The issue of his imprisonment has sometimes arisen amidst Israeli domestic politics. Benjamin Netanyahu has been particularly vocal in lobbying for Pollard's release, visiting Pollard in prison in 2002. He raised the issue with President Clinton during the Wye River peace talks in October 1998. In his autobiography, Clinton wrote that he favored releasing Pollard, but the objections of U.S. intelligence officials were too strong:

For all the sympathy Pollard generated in Israel, he was a hard case to push in America; he had sold our country's secrets for money, not conviction, and for years had not shown any remorse. When I talked to Sandy Berger and George Tenet, they were adamantly opposed to letting Pollard go, as was Madeleine Albright.

Alan Dershowitz has been among Pollard's well-known advocates, both in the courtroom as a lawyer and in various print media. Characterizing the sentence as "excessive", Dershowitz writes in an article reprinted in his bestselling book Chutzpah, "As an American, and as a Jew, I hereby express my outrage at Jonathan Pollard's sentence of life imprisonment for the crime to which he pleaded guilty". Dershowitz writes:

[E]veryone seems frightened to speak up on behalf of a convicted spy. This has been especially true of the Jewish leadership in America. The Pollards are Jewish. ... The Pollards are also Zionists, who—out of a sense of misguided "racial imperative" (to quote Jonathan Pollard)—seem to place their commitment to Israeli survival over the laws of their own country. ... American Jewish leaders, always sensitive to the canard of dual loyalty, are keeping a low profile in the Pollard matter. Many American Jews at the grass roots are outraged at what they perceive to be an overreaction to the Pollards' crimes and the unusually long sentence imposed on Jonathan Pollard.

In 2012, Malcolm Hoenlein advocated for Pollards' release, saying "27 years—he's paid the price for his crimes. He has expressed remorse. Enough is enough. It's time that he be let go—there is no justification that we can see for keeping him any longer, there's no cause of justice, no security interest that could possibly be served".

 

In 2013, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, cited hypocrisy of Pollard's imprisonment in America after revelations of spying against U.S. allies by the United States intelligence agencies.

In 18 years on the bench, I imposed life sentences on four defendants only [two murderers and two terrorists]. Pollard's offense does not nearly approach any of those. — Former US Attorney General Michael Mukasey in a letter sent to President Barack Obama

The Jerusalem City Council has also acted in advocacy of Pollard, changing the name of a square near the official premier's residence from Paris Square to Freedom for Jonathan Pollard Square.

Pollard claimed that he provided only information that was vital to Israeli security, and that it was being withheld by the Pentagon, in violation of a 1983 memorandum of understanding between the two countries. The memorandum of understanding was an agreement between the United States and Israel regarding the sharing of vital security intelligence. According to Pollard, this included data on Soviet arms shipments to Syria, Iraqi and Syrian chemical weapons, the Pakistani atomic bomb project, and Libyan air defense systems. According to the declassified CIA 1987 damage assessment of the Pollard case, with the heading "What the Israelis Did Not Ask For", the assessment notes that the Israelis "never expressed interest in U.S. military activities, plans, capabilities, or equipment". Pollard's defense claimed that Israel had the legal right to the information that Pollard passed to Israel based upon the 1983 Memorandum of understanding and the United States was violating that Memorandum.

Lee Hamilton, a former U.S. congressman from Indiana who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time of Pollard's sentencing, wrote an emotional letter to President Obama in 2011 endorsing commutation of Pollard's sentence. "I have been acquainted for many years with members of his family, especially his parents, and I know how much pain and anguish they have suffered because of their son's incarceration", he wrote. Hamilton added that Pollard's father, whose health was failing rapidly, deserved to see his son freed.

In 2010, representatives Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), and Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) wrote a letter that "notes the positive impact that a grant of clemency would have in Israel, as a strong indication of the goodwill of our nation towards Israel and the Israeli people". In November 2010, Weiner stated: "No one in the history of the United States who did something similar to Jonathan Pollard served a life sentence, nor should he".

Dennis B. Ross said in 2004: "Pollard received a harsher sentence than others who committed comparable crimes". Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger stated that "[t]he Pollard matter was comparatively minor. It was made far bigger than its actual importance." Stephen Fain Williams, a Senior Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit stated: "Jonathan Pollard's life sentence represents a fundamental miscarriage of justice". In December 2010, former U.S. assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb said: "In retrospect, we know that an injustice was done to Pollard ... the man is very sick and should be released before it is too late." Some of the accusations against Pollard can be traced to CIA mole Aldrich Ames, who allegedly blamed Pollard to clear himself of suspicion. Rafi Eitan, Pollard's Israeli handler, stated that Pollard never exposed American agents in the USSR or elsewhere. Eitan said he believed Ames tried to blame Pollard to clear himself of suspicion.

On November 18, 2010, 39 members of Congress submitted a plea of clemency to the White House on behalf of Pollard, asking the president for his immediate release: "We see clemency for Mr. Pollard as an act of compassion justified by the way others has been treated by our justice system." They stated how there has been a great disparity by the amount of time that Pollard has served and by others who were found guilty of similar activities.

Former White House Counsel, Bernard Nussbaum, wrote a letter on January 28, 2011, to President Obama stating that he extensively reviewed the Jonathan Pollard file while he served in the White House. In his letter, he stated, "that a failure at this time to commute his sentence would not serve the course of justice; indeed, I respectfully believe, it would be a miscarriage of justice".

Former secretary of state George Shultz also wrote a letter to President Obama on January 11, 2011, urging that Pollard sentence to be commuted. He stated, "I am impressed that the people who are best informed about the classified material he passed to Israel, former CIA Director James Woolsey and former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis DeConcini, favor his release".

In 2011, Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state, declared that the time had come to commute the sentence of Pollard. On March 3, 2011, Kissinger wrote a letter to President Obama stating, "Having talked with George Shultz and read the statements of former CIA Director Woolsey, former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman DeConcini, former Defense Secretary Weinberger, former Attorney General Mukasey and others whose judgement and first-hand knowledge of the case I respect, I find their unanimous support for clemency compelling. I believe justice would be served by commuting the remainder of Jonathan Pollard's sentence of life imprisonment".

Lawrence Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan, called on the Obama administration to grant clemency to Pollard:

Some now argue that Pollard should be released because it would improve U.S.-Israeli relations and enhance the prospects of success of the Obama administration's Middle East peace process. Although that may be true, it is not the reason I and many others have recently written to the president requesting that he grant Pollard clemency. The reason is that Pollard has already served far too long for the crime for which he was convicted, and by now, whatever facts he might know would have little effect on national security.

In the words of Lawrence Korb, "We believe that his continued incarceration constitutes a travesty of justice and a stain on the American system of justice."

Former vice president Dan Quayle wrote a letter to President Obama on January 31, 2011, urging him to commute Pollard's sentence.

On February 16, 2011, Arlen Specter wrote a letter to President Obama, stating that, as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he believed Pollard should be pardoned. Specter was the second chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee (the first was Dennis DeConcini) to publicly advocate Pollard's release.

On March 22, 2011, more than one hundred New York State legislators signed a petition to President Obama stating, "That we see clemency for Mr. Pollard as an act of compassion justified by the way others has been treated by our justice system".

Christine Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council, wrote a letter to President Obama on December 26, 2012, formally requesting that he commute Pollard's sentence. She stated that he has expressed great remorse. She wrote, "I know I share similar views with many past and current American elected officials" and "therefore, I respectfully urge you to use your constitutional power to treat Mr. Pollard the way others have been treated by our nation's justice system".

In August 2011 Barney Frank sought permission from Congress to discuss the incarceration of Jonathan Pollard and called on Barack Obama to "answer the many calls for Pollard's immediate release". Frank said Pollard has paid a price much higher than anyone else that spied for a friend of the United States and more than many who spied for its enemies.

Congressman Allen West from Florida wrote a letter to President Obama on June 2, 2011, stating, "After serving 26 years behind bars, Jonathan Pollard's health is deteriorating, as is his wife's. If we can consent to the release by the British of the Lockerbie bomber back to Libya due to health concern, how can we justify keeping Mr. Pollard behind bars when his crimes were clearly not as serious as a terrorist who murdered hundreds of Americans?"

On October 26, 2011, a bi-partisan group of 18 retired U.S. senators wrote to President Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's prison sentence to time served. The letter included senators who initially opposed his release. In the letter, it stated, "Mr. Pollard will complete his 26th year of incarceration on November 21, 2011 and begin his 27th year of an unprecedented life sentence (seven of which were spent in solitary confinement). He was indicted on one count of passing classified information to an ally without intent to harm the United States—an offense that normally results in a 2–4 year sentence. He pled guilty under a plea agreement with which he fully complied, but which was ignored by the sentencing judge. Mr. Pollard is the only person in the history of the U.S. to receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally." They conclude, "It is patently clear that Mr. Pollard's sentence is severely disproportionate and (as several federal judges have noted) a gross miscarriage of justice."

In a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal, published on July 5, 2012, James Woolsey wrote that he now endorses release of the convicted spy for Israel, citing the passage of time: "When I recommended against clemency, Pollard had been in prison less than a decade. Today he has been incarcerated for over a quarter of a century under his life sentence." He pointed out that of the more than 50 recently convicted Soviet and Chinese spies, only two received life sentences, and two-thirds were sentenced to less time than Pollard has served so far. He further stated that "Pollard has cooperated fully with the U.S. government, pledged not to profit from his crime (e.g., from book sales), and has many times expressed remorse for what he did." Woolsey expressed his belief that Pollard is still imprisoned only because he is Jewish. He said, "anti-Semitism played a role in the continued detention of Pollard." "For those hung up for some reason on the fact that he's an American Jew, pretend he's a Greek- or Korean- or Filipino-American and free him", Woolsey, who is not Jewish, said in his letter to the Wall Street Journal.

Angelo Codevilla, who has studied the Pollard case since serving as a senior staff member for the Senate intelligence committee from 1978 to 1985, argued that the swarm of accusations against Pollard over the years is implausible. On November 15, 2013, Professor Codevilla wrote a letter to President Obama, stating, "Others have pointed out that Pollard is the only person ever sentenced to life imprisonment for passing information to an ally, without intent to harm America, a crime which normally carries a sentence of 2–4 years; and that this disproportionate sentence in violation of a plea agreement was based not on the indictment, but on a memorandum that was never shared with the defense. This is not how American justice is supposed to work." In an interview to the Weekly Standard, Codevilla stated, "The story of the Pollard case is a blot on American justice." The life sentence "makes you ashamed to be an American".

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich endorsed releasing Pollard.

According to American intelligence expert John Loftus, former U.S. government prosecutor and army intelligence officer, Pollard could not have revealed the identities of American spies, as Pollard lacked the security clearance to access this information. In the opinion of Loftus, "Pollard's continued incarceration is due to horrible stupidity".

Official requests for clemency

Yitzhak Rabin was the first Israeli premier to intervene on Pollard's behalf; in 1995, he petitioned President Bill Clinton for a pardon. Other requests ensued. At a critical juncture in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations at the Wye River Conference in 1998, Premier Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to make the outcome contingent on Pollard's release. "If we signed an agreement with Arafat, I expected a pardon for Pollard", he wrote. Clinton later confirmed in his memoir that he tentatively agreed to the condition, "but I would have to check with our people". When that information was made public, the American intelligence community responded immediately, with unequivocal anger. Seven former Secretaries of Defense—Donald Rumsfeld, Melvin R. Laird, Frank C. Carlucci, Richard B. Cheney, Caspar W. Weinberger, James R. Schlesinger and Elliot L. Richardson—along with several senior congressional leaders, publicly voiced their vigorous opposition to any form of clemency. Central Intelligence Agency director George J. Tenet initially denied reports that he had threatened to resign if Pollard were to be released, but eventually confirmed that he had. Other Clinton advisors, including Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger, were "adamantly opposed" to clemency as well. Clinton, who had not expected such forceful opposition, told Netanyahu that Pollard's release could not be a condition of the agreement, and ordered a formal review of Pollard's case. Dennis Ross confirmed Clinton's version of events in his book The Missing Peace.

Another Israeli request was made in New York on September 14, 2005, and refused by President George W. Bush. A request that Pollard be designated a Prisoner of Zion was rejected by the High Court of Justice of Israel on January 16, 2006. Another appeal for intervention on Pollard's behalf was rejected by the High Court on March 20, 2006.

On January 10, 2008, the subject of Pollard's pardon was again brought up for discussion, this time by Premier Ehud Olmert, during President George W. Bush's first visit to Israel as president. Subsequently, this request was refused by President Bush. The next day, at a dinner attended by several ministers of the Israeli government (in addition to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), the subject of Pollard's release was again discussed. This time, however, Premier Olmert commented that it was not the appropriate occasion to discuss Pollard's fate.

As President Bush was about to leave office in 2009, Pollard himself requested clemency for the first time. In an interview in Newsweek, former CIA director James Woolsey endorsed Pollard's release on two conditions: that he show contrition and refuse any profits from books or other projects associated with the case. Bush did not pardon him.

The New York Times reported on September 21, 2010, that the Israeli government (again under Netanyahu) proposed informally that Pollard be released as a reward to Israel for extending by three months a halt to new settlements in occupied territories.

On January 24, 2011, Netanyahu submitted the first formal public request for clemency in the form of a letter to President Obama. In 2012, President Shimon Peres presented to Obama a letter signed by 80 Israeli legislators, requesting Pollard's release on behalf of the citizens of Israel. In November 2013, Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky said, "It is unprecedented in the history of the U.S. that someone who spied for a friendly country served even half the time [that Pollard has] in prison."

During late March 2014, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly offered to release Pollard as an incentive to Israel to resume negotiations with the Palestinians toward the formation of a Palestinian state. The White House, however, announced that no decision had been made on any agreement involving Pollard.

In October 2014, Elyakim Rubinstein, an Israeli Supreme Court Justice, former attorney general, and the acting Israeli ambassador to the US at the time of Pollard's arrest, advocated for Pollard's pardon. He said "Mistakes were made, mainly by the Israelis, but by the Americans as well and 29 years [is] enough."

In a November 2014 letter to President Obama, a group of American officials, including former CIA director James Woolsey, former Assistant U.S. Defense Secretary Lawrence Korb, and former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, criticized the "unjust denial of parole" for Pollard whose "grossly disproportionate sentence continues". They termed the charge used to keep him imprisoned "patently false".

Opposition

Critics allege that Pollard's espionage, which compromised elements of four major intelligence systems, damaged American national security much more than was ever publicly acknowledged. They have charged that he was motivated not by patriotism or concern for Israel's security, but by greed; that Israel paid him well, and he spent the money on cocaine, alcohol, and expensive meals. Many intelligence officials are convinced that at least some of the information Pollard sold to Israel was acquired eventually by the USSR, although officials interviewed by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh acknowledged that they had no good evidence. In 1999, Hersh summarized the case against Pollard in The New Yorker.

Four former directors of Naval Intelligence—William Studeman, Sumner Shapiro, John L. Butts, and Thomas Brooks—issued a public response to the call for clemency, and what they termed "the myths that have arisen from this clever public relations campaign ... aimed at transforming Pollard from greedy, arrogant betrayer of the American national trust into Pollard, committed Israeli patriot":

Pollard pleaded guilty and therefore never was publicly tried. Thus, the American people never came to know that he offered classified information to three other countries before working for the Israelis and that he offered his services to a fourth country while he was spying for Israel. They also never came to understand that he was being highly paid for his services.

Pollard and his apologists argue he turned over to the Israelis information they were being denied that was critical to their security. The fact is, however, Pollard had no way of knowing what the Israeli government was already receiving by way of official intelligence exchange agreements ... Some of the data he compromised had nothing to do with Israeli security or even with the Middle East. He betrayed worldwide intelligence data, including sources and methods developed at significant cost to the U.S. taxpayer. As a result of his perfidy, some of those sources are lost forever.

Another claim Pollard made is that the U.S. government reneged on its bargain not to seek the life sentence. What is not heard is that Pollard's part of the bargain was to cooperate fully in an assessment of the damage he had done and to refrain from talking to the press prior to the completion of his sentencing. He blatantly and contemptuously failed to live up to either part of the plea agreement ... It was this coupled with the magnitude and consequences of his criminal actions that resulted in the judge imposing a life sentence ... The appellate court subsequently upheld the life sentence.

If, as Pollard and his supporters claim, he has "suffered enough" for his crimes, he is free to apply for parole as the American judicial system provides. In his arrogance, he has refused to do so, but insists on being granted clemency or a pardon.

Shapiro stated that he was troubled by the endorsements by Jewish organizations for Pollard: "We work so hard to establish ourselves and to get where we are, and to have somebody screw it up ... and then to have Jewish organizations line up behind this guy and try to make him out a hero of the Jewish people, it bothers the hell out of me."

Ron Olive, retired Naval Criminal Investigative Service, directed the Pollard investigation. In his 2006 book, Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice, Olive wrote that Pollard did not serve Israel solely, but admitted passing secrets to South Africa, and to his financial advisers, and to shopping his access to Pakistan and other countries. Olive wrote that Pollard also stole classified documents related to China that his wife used to advance her personal business interests and attempted to broker arms deals with South Africa, Argentina, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Iran. Pollard's advocates deny these claims citing the 166-page CIA Damage Assessment Report which they say indicates he only passed information to Israel pertaining to Israeli security. Pollard wrote in his defense memorandum that his wife never profited from his espionage. The reports were declassified in 2012.

New Republic editor Martin Peretz also argued against freeing Pollard: "Jonathan Pollard is not a Jewish martyr. He is a convicted espionage agent who spied on his country for both Israel and Pakistan (!)—a spy, moreover, who got paid for his work. His professional career, then, reeks of infamy and is suffused with depravity." Peretz called Pollard's supporters "professional victims, mostly brutal themselves, who originate in the ultra-nationalist and religious right. They are insatiable. And they want America to be Israel's patsy."

Former FBI and U.S. Navy lawyer M.E. "Spike" Bowman, a top legal adviser to navy intelligence at the time of Pollard's arrest who had intimate knowledge of the Pollard case, issued a detailed critique in 2011 of the case for clemency. "Because the case never went to trial, it is difficult for outside observers to understand the potential impact and complexity of the Pollard betrayal", he wrote. "There is no doubt that Pollard was devoted to Israel. However, the extent of the theft and the damage was far broader and more complex than evidenced by the single charge and sentence." In his estimation, Pollard "was neither a U.S. nor an Israeli patriot. He was a self-serving, gluttonous character seeking financial reward and personal gratification."

In September 2011, according to one report, Vice President Joe Biden—who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time of Pollard's arrest—told a group of rabbis, "President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, 'Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time. If it were up to me, he would stay in jail for life'." Biden later denied having used those precise words, but acknowledged that the report characterized his position accurately.

Parole

Laws in effect at the time of Pollard's sentencing mandated that federal inmates serving life sentences be paroled after 30 years of incarceration if no significant prison regulations had been violated, and if there was a "reasonable probability" that the inmate would not re-offend. On July 28, 2015, the United States Parole Commission announced that Pollard would be released on November 20, 2015. The U.S. Justice Department informed Pollard's legal team that it would not contest the Parole Commission's unanimous July 7 decision.

The terms of release set by the Parole Commission stipulated that Pollard must remain on parole for a minimum of five years. His parole restrictions required him to remain in New York City unless granted special permission to travel outside. His parole officer was also authorized to impose a curfew and set exclusion zones within the city. He was ordered to wear electronic monitoring devices to track his movements. In addition, press interviews and Internet access without prior permission were prohibited. Pollard's attorneys appealed the conditions to the Parole Commission's appeals board, which eliminated only one restriction, that of requiring prior permission to use the Internet. However, it was ruled that his Internet use would be subjected to monitoring. Pollard's attorneys and Ayelet Shaked, Israel's Justice Minister, urged President Obama to exercise his powers of clemency to waive Pollard's parole requirements and allow him to relocate to Israel immediately; but a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council announced that the president would not intervene.

After his release on November 20, 2015, as scheduled, Pollard relocated to an apartment secured for him by his attorneys in New York City. A 7:00 pm to 7:00 am curfew was imposed on him. A job offer, as a research analyst at a Manhattan investment company, was retracted due to the inspections to which his employer's computers would be subjected. His attorneys immediately filed a motion challenging the terms of his parole, arguing that the Internet restrictions rendered him unemployable as an analyst, and the GPS-equipped ankle bracelet was unnecessary, as he was not a flight risk. The filing included affidavits from McFarlane and former Senate Intelligence Committee member Dennis DeConcini declaring that any secrets learned by Pollard thirty years ago were no longer secret, and had no value today. On August 12, 2016, a federal judge denied the motion on the basis of a statement from James Clapper, the director of U.S. National Intelligence, asserting that contrary to the MacFarlane and DeConcini affidavits, much of the information stolen by Pollard during the 1980s remained secret. The judge also cited Pollard's Israeli citizenship, obtained during his incarceration, as evidence that he was indeed a flight risk.

A bill introduced in the Knesset in November 2015 would, if passed, authorize the Israeli government to fund Pollard's housing and medical expenses, and pay him a monthly stipend, for the remainder of his life. Reports that the Israelis had already been paying Pollard and his ex-wife during his incarceration were denied. After numerous delays, the bill was withdrawn from consideration in March 2016 at the request of Premier Netanyahu and Israeli security officials, citing "diplomatic and security reasons".

During March 2017, Pollard's attorneys petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reverse the August 2016 lower-court decision denying his request for more lenient parole restrictions. They argued that the prohibition against leaving his residence between 7 pm and 7 am forced him to violate Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and that surveillance of his computers prevented him from working at a job consistent with his education and intelligence. They further asserted that Pollard could not possibly remember information he saw before his arrest, and in any case, the parole conditions arbitrarily limited his computer usage, but not his ability to transfer information by other means. Netanyahu also reportedly renewed his request for a parole waiver during a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence. In May 2017, the court rejected the appeal, ruling that the parole conditions minimized the risk of harm he continued to pose to U.S. intelligence.

On November 20, 2020, Pollard's parole restrictions expired. The US Justice Department refused to extend the restrictions.

Emigration to Israel

Although Pollard expressed a desire to relocate to Israel, he did not immediately do so after his parole expired due to his wife's health issues, and remained in the US for over a month while she underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer. Pollard and his wife, Esther, finally arrived in Israel on December 30, 2020, on a private jet owned by US billionaire Sheldon Adelson. They were greeted on arrival by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who handed Pollard his Israeli documentation. Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said that Pollard would be granted a government stipend equivalent to the pensions granted to former Mossad and Shin Bet agents. In accordance with COVID-19 restrictions, they went into quarantine for two weeks after their arrival. Pollard and his wife settled in Jerusalem. Esther Pollard died on January 31, 2022. She had been hospitalized for two weeks after contracting COVID-19.

Pollard was honored by Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion at a Jerusalem Day gala in 2021. Pollard gave the main address to the gala, in which he accused the U.S. government of anti-Semitism, termed the U.S State Department and the United Nations enemies of Israel, and referred to the Biden administration as "Amalek". In Jewish tradition, the 613 commandments mandate that Amalekites must be killed.

Pollard refused an offer to campaign for the Knesset on the Otzma Yehudit party's electoral slate in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, saying that he had "suffered enough".

During mid-September 2022, Pollard announced his engagement to Rivka Abrahams-Donin, a widowed mother of seven children. They married on October 20.

On November 23, 2023, Pollard posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Israel should have arrested the families of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during the Gaza war to prevent them from interfering in Israel's war plans. In February 2024, he advocated moving the entire Arab population out of Gaza, preferably to Ireland.

In popular culture

Spray-paint portrait of Pollard at the Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem.

Pollard's story inspired the movie Les Patriotes (The Patriots) by French director Éric Rochant in which American actor Richard Masur portrayed a character resembling Pollard. Pollard's story inspired the stage play The Law of Return by playwright Martin Blank, which was produced Off-Broadway at the 4th Street Theater NYC. Blank is also developing a screenplay for the film adaptation of the play.

Beit Yonatan, an Israeli-owned apartment building in Silwan, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, is named after Pollard.

Street artist Solomon Souza added Pollard's portrait to his collection of spray paint art at the Mahane Yehuda Market after Pollard's release.

In 1995, a play named Pollard (alternatively titled Pollard's Trial) debuted at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. It was performed at the Knesset in 2011. The part of Pollard was played by Israeli actor Rami Baruch.

In 2012, SHI 360 released the song "Yonathan".

In the 1994 novel The Fist of God by Frederick Forsyth, the recent case of Pollard's espionage is a source of mild tension between the Mossad and the CIA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard