Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

106 Israeli Lawmakers Demand Action on Jonathan Pollard

A petition signed by 106 Knesset members calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard, held in a U.S. prison for over 28 years for spying for Israel, was presented to Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Both coalition and opposition Knesset members signed the petition, which was given Wednesday to Peres by the caucus to free Jonathan Pollard, headed by Ayelet Shaked of the Likud Party and Nachman Shai of the Labor Party.

The Knesset members presented the petition to Peres during a meeting in order for him pass it on to the U.S. President Barack Obama, with the request that he free Pollard.

“It is both a right and a duty for me to bring before the President of the United States of America the request to free Jonathan Pollard which comes with agreement from across the political spectrum,” Peres said, according to a statement issued by his office. “As president it is my clear responsibility to voice such clear consensus, I do it with pride and see it as a duty and responsibility.”

Peres said he has raised the request to release Pollard with Obama on several occasions.

Pollard is in the 29th year of a life sentence in a U.S. prison for spying for Israel while working as a civilian Navy intelligence analyst.

Following revelations last week that American intelligence intercepted e-mails from senior Israeli officials, Israeli government officials have called for the release of Pollard, whose health is reported to be suffering. Other reports suggest that Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is due to arrive in Israel in Thursday, have discussed linking Pollard’s release to a fourth Palestinian prisoner release as part of the current Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, which is scheduled to take place sometime this year.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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.