Jerusalem – Anne Pollard, Jonathan’s First Wife Set To Sue Israel

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    Anne Pollard, the former wife of Jonathan Pollard, returns to Washington for the first time in 30 years, in an interview aired November 20, 2015. (screen capture: Channel 2)Jerusalem – Anne Pollard, the first wife of Jonathan Pollard, who was freed on Friday after serving thirty years in a US prison for spying for Israel, is preparing to sue the Israeli government. One of Pollard’s lawyers, Roee Attias told The Jerusalem Post that none of the details of the lawsuit have yet been finalized but that Pollard’s “very serious” claims against the state are under investigation.

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    Pollard was arrested with her husband in 1985 and served 40 months of a five-year prison term for being an accessory to possessing classified documents.

    Attias said there are two elements of the lawsuit: Pollard’s status in Israel with regard to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Defense Ministry; and damage caused to her image by public officials and the media in the period before Jonathan’s release from prison.

    “Anne Pollard tried many times to settle her status in Israel and she was told in no uncertain terms that she would have to wait for her Jonathan’s release. The time has come for this obligation to be carried out,” Attias told the Post, describing the state’s conduct as “unfair and unstately.”

    Her claim seeks Israeli recognition that she was practically an agent of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

    Pollard further claims that senior Israeli officials caused her suffering for presenting her in the eyes of the public as someone who had lost her mind.

    “She couldn’t answer to claims made against her because of censorship issues,” said Attias, adding that now that her ex-husband is out of prison there is no reason for her to stay silent any longer.

    Anne Pollard was released from prison in 1990 and was soon after served divorce papers from her husband. She lived for a period in Israel in the 1990s, but then returned to the US. Jonathan Pollard married a second time in 1993, to Esther Pollard.

    In December 2010, Pollard arrived in Israel in poor health and broke, after turning to the Israeli Consulate in New York for help. She first turned to the consulate in Los Angeles in August 2010 and requested assistance.

    According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Pollard then disappeared, only to reappear last week in New York. When officials from the consulate visited her apartment, they found that both she and her father were ill and impoverished, according to sources in the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

    Netanyahu set up a team, headed by then cabinet secretary Tzvi Hauser and including then foreign minister Avigdor Liberman and Jewish Agency officials, to bring Pollard and her father to Israel and provide for their needs.

    Netanyahu said in 2010 that “Israel has a moral obligation” to help her out, and would do so, but Attias notes that the state has not issued any official document and has provided her with sporadic assistance, some years leaving her in the lurch.


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    8 years ago

    Anne Pollard has a valid point, as she keenly pointed out that the higher ups in the government in 1985 (i.e. Shimon Peres, Yitzchak Shamir, and Yitzchak Rabin), all knew of the existence of the so-called “rogue operation”, but did nothing to stop it. They went along with the operation, and knew about Rafi Eytan’s work. Rafi Eytan and Aviem Sella (Pollard’s handler), double- crossed Pollard and his wife Anne, when they told them to first go to the Israeli Embassy, and then threw then up of the Embassy, into the hands of the FBI. The coward Aviem Sella, would not return to the USA, after he fled; nor, would he return the vast majority of documents, which Pollard gave him. Essentially, Pollard and his wife, were thrown to the wolves. If the government of Israel had fully cooperated, returned the documents, and admitted its role, Pollard would have been released a long time ago. However, both Pollard and his wife used extremely poor judgment when they went on 60 Minutes prior to their sentencing. It was a violation of their plea bargain agreement, and Judge Aubrey Robinson, and that anti-semite Caspar Weinberger, used it as an excuse to have the book thrown at them.