Pollard To Supreme Court: State Has No Right to Forfeit My Life to Appoint
Rafi Eitan

Justice4JP Release - May 1, 2006

Lawyers for Jonathan Pollard will file an appeal in Israel's Supreme Court
today to block the appointment of Rafi Eitan, Pollard's former handler and
control officer, as an Israeli Government Minister.

Inter alia, Pollard's petion to the High Court of Justice states:

Rafi Eitan is not suited to be a Minister because he corrupt both as an
official and as a commander. The facts are:

1) Rafi Eitan singlehandedly deflected all responsiibility for the Pollard
affair away from the Government of Israel and from the politcal and military
echelon by falsely claiming that he had acted alone without their knowledge
EVEN THOUGH this lie was untenable and the Americans knew it was a lie.

2) For 21 years Eitan has remained silent about official Israeli Government
involvement and allowed Pollard, an official Israeli agent , to rot in jail
in America.

3) Rafi Eitan not only deflected blame from the Govt of Israel, he gave
false testimony to the Americans blaming Pollard for the whole affair, as if
Pollard had acted on his own. For 21 years Eitan never corrected this false
version of events, even though he knew that it might cost an Israeli agent
his life.

4) For 21 years Eitan has withheld a critcial document and refused to
release it to the Americans - or to provide it to the appropriate
authorities in Israel so that they might use it in order to save the life of
an Israeli agent.

The document shows clearly exactly what information Pollard DID supply to
Israel, and by contrast, what information Pollard DID NOT supply. This
document would have allowed the Americans to close the case years ago. It
would also have PREVENTED all the false accusations against Pollard, from
which he has suffered for 21 years. For 21 years Eitan has hidden this
document and withheld it from the Americans, knowing full well that he was
sacrificing the life of Pollard, an Israeli agent by doing so.

5) In oder to cover up and hide Israeli Government and Military involvement
in the Pollard affair for the last 2 decades, Rafi Eitan made a clear and
calculated choice to protect the political careers of his friends by
sacrificing a soldier in the field.

6) For 21 years, Eitan refused numerous appeals from Pollard and from his
wife, Esther, to come to the aid of his agent quitely behind the scenes.
Eitan claimed that the Americans are angered when they hear his name and
that the less that they hear the name "Eitan", the better it is for Pollard,
thus he refused to help at all. He told Esther Pollard, in the presence of
witnesses, that his only regret in the Pollard affair was that he did not
succeed in killing Pollard before he sought refuge at the Embassy so that
there would be no Pollard affair.

7) By running publicly for Knesset, in the face of the Americans, Eitan
showed callous disregard for the fate of his agent, Pollard, even after 21
years. Eitan's public campaign and his high profile as both an MK and
possibly as a minister, just hammers another nail in the coffin, angering
the Americans all over again, and leaving Pollard to take the blame again.

8) Eitan ran for public office using Pollard's name as a way to promote
himself. A Commander who callously abandons his agent in the field for 21
years, without conscience, and then steps on him all over again after 21
years further his own career should not be entrusted with public office and
the responsibility that governs the lives of our citizens.

9) Eitan - to this day - continues to lie to protect the political careers
of his buddies, and to prevent their involvement in the Pollard affair from
being known. He maintains the lies even though he knows that doing so is
tantamount to a death decree for his agent, Jonathan Pollard.

10) How can the Government of Israel entrust this man with responsiblity for
many citizens, when he has shown that he is incapable of behaving with honor
and deceny towards even one agent -- Pollard -- who continues to rot in
prison for 21 years because of this man.

Pollard's petition to Supreme Court concludes:

The State of Israel has no right to forfeit Pollard's life and cause it to
end behind bars. The appointment of Rafi Eitan as a Government Minister will
obviate attempts to bring about Pollard's release and will thus be
tantamount to imposing a death sentence on Pollard. The State of Israel has
no right to do this. -30-

For more information contact: Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
052-383-7020