Pollard petition passes 60,000

By GIL HOFFMAN The Jerusalem Post 05/18/2012 10:11
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=270507

The 60,000th person signed a petition early Friday calling upon President
Shimon Peres to do everything possible to bring about the release of Israeli
agent Jonathan Pollard when he goes to Washington on June 13 to receive the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The petition drive began two months ago and has attracted support from
across Israel and around the world.

“Due to the superior values the medal represents, we feel we cannot
reconcile you receiving it when the United States is still holding Pollard
in prison,” the petition states.

“We ask you to take advantage of your unprecedented diplomatic standing in
order to work for Jonathan’s immediate release before you are given the
medal. Otherwise receiving the medal would make a mockery of Israel.”

Pollard is still serving the life sentence he was given more than 26 years
ago for passing classified information to an ally. Obama has not responded
to calls by many top current and former Israeli and American officials to
commute Pollard’s sentence to time served.

According to the 1987 Eban Commission Report, the Knesset committee
appointed to investigate the Pollard affair, Peres personally initiated and
authorized the return to the US of all of the documents that Pollard had
provided to Israel with his fingerprints still upon them, which helped the
prosecution’s case. This was the first and only case in the history of
modern espionage in which a prime minister actively assisted in the
indictment and prosecution of his own country’s agent.

The organizers of the petition stressed that they were not asking Peres to
condition receiving the medal on Pollard’s freedom.