Jonathan Pollard Slams Palestinian Prisoner Release

By JTA August 16, 2013

Jonathan Pollard expressed strong opposition to Israel’s freeing of terrorists in a critical letter sent to The Jerusalem Post.

Pollard, who is jailed in the United States for spying for Israel, accused Israel of being a “strange kind of democracy that pays no heed whatsoever to the will of the people” in an Op-Ed Friday in the Jerusalem Post.

The article followed Israel’s release earlier this week of 26 prisoners convicted of terrorist activities as part of peace talks with the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to release another 78 prisoners in the coming months.

Pollard, who was given a life sentence in 1987 for giving Israel classified U.S. intelligence information, argued that Israel was harming its own citizens to satisfy its critics and enemies.

“Israel is the only country in the world ever to voluntarily expel its own citizens from chunks of its homeland in order to hand over the land to its enemies,” he wrote.

In an accusation that seemed to refer also to his own case, Pollard wrote that Israel “also holds unenviable world records for betraying those who serve the state.” Pollard was first jailed in 1986. Several Israeli leaders have made requests that the United States pardon Pollard.

U.S. President Barack Obama has rejected those requests, insisting that Pollard receive a fair hearing by a parole committee review set to take place in 2015.

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