The campaign to release imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard has intensified, spurred by President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel this week.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group representing 30 national Jewish organizations, joined in a pre-Passover appeal to Obama to release Pollard prior to April 8, which would be his 10,000th day in prison.
After wishing the president a successful trip to the Middle East, the leaders requested that he “act on the commutation of [Pollard’s] sentence to time served before this milestone is reached. Mr. Pollard, whose health has deteriorated, has expressed remorse and regret repeatedly.”
The March 19 appeal noted that many leading Americans have spoken out publicly for the convicted spy’s release, including some who were involved in prosecuting him.
Calls to release Pollard have intensified in the last year from lawmakers and former top officials of both political parties, as well as from former CIA director James Woolsey and former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in Jerusalem in front of the Israeli president’s residence in advance of Obama’s visit, urging clemency for Pollard.
They added their voices to more than 200,000 signers of a petition in support of Pollard’s release, which organizers hoped to hand-deliver to Obama during his March 20-22 visit.
Pollard has served nearly 26 years of a life sentence for spying for Israel while he was working as a civilian Navy intelligence analyst. — ynetnews.com