JERUSALEM, May 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli intelligence agent in his 20th year of a life sentence in the US, has filed a petition in the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem today, to compel the government of Israel to officially declare him a "Prisoner of Zion." This status bestows important rights upon the PoZ and imposes specific legal obligations upon the government.
The petition asks the Court, in making its determination, to investigate the United States' violation of Pollard's plea agreement, his unprecedented life-sentence, and the cruel and unusual punishment to which he has been subjected.
The lawsuit also seeks a judicial review of the Israeli government's calculated mishandling of Pollard's case for the last two decades; and its consistent refusal to mount an effective campaign to secure his freedom, as it has done for agents captured in other countries -- Cyprus, Switzerland, Jordan, and New Zealand, among them.
You know, up to this point, the appeal has some grounding in reality, whether or not you agree that it should be granted. But here's where it careens off the track.
The High Court petition argues: "The unprecedented and disproportionate life-sentence that was imposed upon Jonathan Pollard...the stubborn refusal of the United States to release him from jail...the torture and afflictions that Pollard has endured and continues to endure in various penal facilities, and the denial of his legitimate and basic human rights are all derived from the fact that he is a Jewish soldier in the service of the Jewish State."
Complete and unadulterated nonsense, typical of the Pollard campaign and a big part of the reason why it lost my support long ago. If Pollard's "persecution" was really motivated by antisemitism, the Israeli government -- several Israeli governments -- would not have continued to indulge in this so-called "calculated mishandling" of the case. Nor would the American government be complicit.
Pollard is an unrepentant criminal who continues to demand public adulation for his crime. So while the apparent gross violations of due process in his case continue to worry me a great deal, his personal fate does not.
