Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Petition to Romney Urges Pollard Clemency

Knesset leaders have sent a letter to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney urging him to grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard if elected president.

The letter, according to the Jerusalem Post, was similar to letters sent to former President Bill Clinton and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It asks Romney for the “immediate release” Pollard, who was convicted of spying on the U.S. for Israel, upon Romney’s taking office.

The letter was signed by every non-Arab party leader in Knesset.

“We, the heads of the Knesset factions, the elected representatives of the citizens of Israel, want to bring a deeply painful issue to your attention, the plight of Jonathan Pollard,” the letter stated, according to the Post. “It is not disputed that Jonathan Pollard broke the law and he deserved to be punished.

“Nevertheless, the citizens of Israel are united in their request for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds. He has served nearly 27 years in prison and his health has deteriorated to a point that is life-threatening.”

Romney has said that he is “open to examining” the Pollard issue, though he did not mention Pollard during his recent trip to Israel.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.