Part I: The Archiving of an Israeli Agent

Esther Pollard made the following presentation in Hebrew to Judge Micha Lindenstrauss, Israel's State Comptroller, more than a year after her first meeting with the judge. At the first meeting Lindenstrauss committed to do a thorough investigation of the mishandling of the Pollard case by the State of Israel. (See "Jonathan and the Judge - A Final Chapter in the Pollard Case?" for a complete description of the initial meeting. )

Esther was accompanied to this second meeting with the State Comptroller by attorney Larry Dub (who also attended the first meeting), Nissan GanOr and Moshe Feiglin. Lindenstrauss attended with his assistant, attorney Rami Chaimovitch, and attorney Hillel Shamgar, the head of the Public Complaints Office.

Text of Esther Pollard's presentation

Kavod HaShofet, (Your Honor) years ago when I merely hinted that Israel was responsible for keeping Jonathan in prison, people were scandalized. As the years went by and I began to hint that Israel wants Jonathan to die in prison, people were stunned and they refused to believe it. Today when I say publicly that the only plan the Government of Israel has for Jonathan - and the only plan it has ever had - is for him to die in prison, no one is surprised. They tell me it's obvious.

The more time passes, the more Jonathan's life blood is slipping away. That is why we came to you nearly a year and a half ago, and implored you to expose this crime: It is not just the betrayal and abandonment of an agent. It is murder. The United States of America imposed a life sentence on Jonathan Pollard; the Government of Israel has made it into a death sentence.

Kavod HaShofet, if this were year one, or year five, or year ten, perhaps one could adopt a wait and see approach. But it is 22 years. Where there were questions before there are now known facts. And the facts add up to something very vile and sinister. If some one in a position of authority, with an honest and reliable reputation, does not step forward and expose what the Government of Israel is doing to Jonathan, they may succeed (G-d forbid) in murdering him.

We turned to you, the Mivaker HaMidina, the one person in the country with the moral standing, the trust of the nation and the ear of the media and implored you to expose this rot in order to save Jonathan's life.

Now a nearly a year and a half later, we sit here before you only to learn that nothing significant has been done and nothing of significance is proposed. Perhaps you, too, wish the case would just go away. But you know, Kavod HaShofet, that the only way this case is going to go away, is if G-d forbid, Jonathan dies in prison. And if he does, those who had the power and authority and did not use them without reservation to prevent this from happening, will surely have his blood on their hands as much as those who implemented this murderous plan from the start.

When we met with you a year and a half ago we brought you a wealth of information about the last 2 decades that Jonathan Pollard has been held in captivity in America for his service on behalf of the State of Israel.

The information we turned over to you describes a classic case of the process of "archiving" a prisoner. The process enables the government to dispose of the prisoner by storing him in an archive of national forgetfulness as if he were an inanimate document, not a live human being. This process was originally invented and perfected by totalitarian regimes in order to have complete control over information and to use prisoners for political propaganda. How the process works: The prisoner is sentenced in a show trial. He is deprived of his legal and human rights, and dropped into a deep dark hole. There he is cut off from contact with the outside world and held virtually incommunicado. In time the prisoner gives up hope of ever bringing the truth to light and he dies in prison, and the truth dies with him.

The Americans archived Jonathan Pollard when they buried him alive and held him in solitary confinement cut off from the world, first at USP Springfield, a prison facility for the criminally insane , and then at USP Marion , the most brutal prison in the US federal system. Jonathan is still archived today, even though he is in FCI Butner, an open population prison.

BUT THE MOST HORRIFYING PART OF ALL OF THIS IS THAT THE US COULD NOT HAVE ARCHIVED JONATHAN POLLARD WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE AND FULL COOPERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL.

And of course, once the United States had archived Jonathan, Israel followed suit.

Kavod HaShofet, we brought you all of the information that demonstrates Israel's total complicity in allowing the US to archive Jonathan:

• It began with Israel denying all ties to Jonathan from the moment he was arrested, and insisting that Jonathan was a freelancer who had carried out the spying on his own.

• Israel provided all of the evidence to indict Jonathan. Without this evidence the US had no case against him.

• Israel cooperated with the prosecutors and gave false testimony against her own agent. Aviem Sella, Rafi Eitan, and all the top officials involved in the operation submitted false affidavits excusing themselves from blame and incriminating Jonathan. To this day, Israel has never corrected this false testimony or submitted new affidavits.

• Israel recommended and paid for the Lebanese-American attorney who sabotaged Jonathan's legal case by making deliberate "errors" which resulted, inevitably, in an unlimited life sentence. Moreover, on orders from his paymasters, the Israelis, this lawyer never filed a notice of intent to appeal, thus forever depriving Jonathan of the right to appeal his life sentence.

• Jonathan was then thrown into 7 years of solitary confinement and held in brutally harsh conditions, cut off from the world, virtually incommunicado, and without any avenue of appeal.

• To archive Pollard in Israel, an under cover Mossad agent was assigned to the Pollard case, to ensure that Jonathan remained quietly buried alive, and that no one would help him. His undercover name was Amnon Dror; his real name, as we indicated to you previously, is Yair Racheli. As you know, he revealed his true identity in an interview in the IDF Magazine BaMachne, after he retired, and we provided you with a copy.

• The State of Israel funneled some 3 million dollars to Amnor Dror's fake "Public Committee" to ensure that Pollard remained archived in prison in the US; and that he remain in an Israeli graveyard of national forgetfulness. [See attached item from the Jerusalem Post Oct 22, 1995]

• After paying the lawyer to sabotage Jonathan's legal case and to ensure that he could not appeal his sentence, the government of Israel thereafter refused to pay a cent for any lawyer wishing to help Jonathan get out of prison!

• For 10 years, Jonathan remained silent and cooperated with the Government of Israel and he was rewarded with absolutely no progress whatsoever. Israel made it clear that she would do nothing for Jonathan so in 1995 he found his own legal representation, and sued the Government of Israel.

• Jonathan sued for Israeli citizenship. He won the citizenship in an out-of-court settlement.

• EVERYONE, including the US, believed that now that Israel had granted him citizenship, it would fight for his release. Instead, Israel turned its back. How?

• By archiving him again, and appointing a "special official" to manage his file. This way there was an "address" for Pollard in Israel. BUT NO ONE at that address had a mandate to do anything for him! [Some of those who held the file over the years were: Danny Yatom, Moshe Kochanovsky, and Danny Naveh.]

• In 1998 Jonathan was still abandoned and neglected by Israel so he sued again. Again he won out of court, and was recognized as an agent. THIS WAS THE CRITICAL MOMENT. As soon as Israel officially recognized Jonathan as her agent and formally accepted responsibility, this was the time to take two basic steps to implement his new status.

• The US watched very closely to see what Israel would do. When Israel FAILED officially to notify the US Justice Department, the State Department, or the Bureau of Prisons of Jonathan's change in status, the Americans knew that Israel was not serious about securing his release, and that the formal recognition was just a PR gimmick for Israel. When Israel FAILED to take Jonathan's file and give it to the appropriate office at the Ministry of Defense, so he could be included on the list of captives and his rights as an agent in captivity could be implemented, the Americans understood that Israel still wants Pollard archived.

Nothing has changed in almost a decade since then. Jonathan's file in Israel remains archived. The official in charge of it, answers to no one, and does nothing. All he is mandated to do is to hold the file and wait for Jonathan to die. As you so well know, the special official in charge of guarding Jonathan's file in the archives today is Israel Maimon, the Cabinet Secretary.

Kavod Ha'shofet, it is a heavy responsibility when the fate of a man's life is literally in your hands. There are no excuses that absolve you personally of the moral responsibility that your position as the Mivaker HaMidina and State Ombudsman imposes upon you. We urge you to reconsider your position, to stop delaying and to act at once to save the life of an Israeli agent in peril. His life literally hangs in the balance. We know you have the authority, the power and the ability to do this; we hope you are worthy of the responsibility.

J4JP Post Script:

The meeting ended with a promise by the State Comptroller to weigh carefully all the information that was presented and all that had been said and to "find a way to help Jonathan Pollard."

A week later, Judge Micha Lindenstrauss indicated to Esther Pollard that he had come to the conclusion (nearly a year and a half after committing to investigate the Government's handling of the Pollard case; and indeed after initiating the investigation and finding himself stonewalled by the PM's office) that he does "not have the authority" to investigate the crimes perpetrated by the State of Israel against an Israeli agent who continues to languish in prison in his 22nd year of a life sentence.

Judge Lindenstrauss suggested to Esther - and this is not a joke - that she file a complaint with the Public Complaints Office instead.

In a separate conversation attorney Hillel Shamgar, head of the Public Complaints Office, indicated to Esther that if she would like to file a complaint, he would need to do a long and thorough investigation to see whether or not "her case" has merit. Even then, said Shamgar, it is not clear that his office could do anything.

Draw your own conclusions.

Part ll: Jonathan Pollard's Letter to State Comptroller Lindenstrauss