Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu asked US Secretary of State John Kerry to consider releasing imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in return for Israel’s return to direct peace talks with the Palestinians, claimed a report by Israeli Channel 2 Monday.
The supposed plea, which was apparently proposed in an effort to placate Netanyahu’s more hard-lined cabinet colleagues such as Economics Minister Naftali Bennett who have been outspoken critics of the US-led renewed peace efforts, was not immediately denied by the Prime Minister’s office, with a spokesman choosing to reiterate that Netanyahu “has consistently brought up the issue of Jonathan Pollard’s release in his meetings with senior American officials”.
Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) leader Bennett has conditioned support for the government’s proposed 2013 state budget on holding a referendum on any proposed and swaps to be sanctioned as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians “to prevent cleaving Israeli society in two”, his party’s principle concern.
In a meeting at the Knesset, the right-winger told colleagues: “This [potential peace deal with the Palestinians] will have an effect on our security situation and that of our grandchildren, and on the solidarity of the nation… and on our ideological make-up. Above all, this land was given to us thousands of years ago. It doesn’t make sense that a political exercise should determine its future. Only the nation.”
His call for a referendum was immediately rejected by Justice Minister and chief Israeli negotiator Tzipi Livni, however, who maintained that the government’s mandate to make difficult decisions concerning peace had been granted by its success in January’s general election. “The general election is the only real referendum,” she told Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronot.
The US State Department meanwhile refused to verify the reports in a press briefing Monday, amid its continued insistence on keeping the details of Kerry’s talks with both Palestinian and Israeli leaders private, with department spokesman Jen Psaki nevertheless maintaining the administration’s “position remains the same on that”. Calling on both parties to adopt the US code of secrecy on the nature of such talks, she concluded that “we’re going to continue to abide by the premise, and we hope others do the same”.
Netanyahu last lobbied directly for Pollard’s release on Barack Obama’s inaugural visit to the Jewish State as US President in March, when he said “the time has long since come for Jonathan to go free”. Previewing his planned request for clemency, he added that “this issue will come up during President Obama’s visit. It has already been raised countless times by myself and others, and the times has come for him to go free”. President Shimon Peres also told a group of high school students ahead of Obama’s arrival in Jerusalem that he would “raise the subject of Pollard’s release” during his meeting with his US counterpart, in consideration of “humanitarian reasons”. “As president, I pardon prisoners on a humanitarian basis. [Pollard has] been in prison long enough,” he insisted in response to a query from the student audience.
Pollard has suffered many illnesses since his imprisonment and, over the past year, he has been hospitalised several times. He is believed to be suffering from kidney and gall bladder complications.
The White House has repeatedly adopted the party line shared by the State Department, with spokesman Jay Carey continued insistence that “our position has not changed” on the Pollard issue.
Petitions calling for the convicted spy’s release have received overwhelming support from the Israeli public. Pollard, a former US navy analyst, was convicted of passing thousands of secret documents about American intelligence activities in the Arab world to Israel between May 1984 and his arrest in November 1985.
He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995 and was officially recognised by the Jewish state as an Israeli spy in 1998.
However, Israelis have insisted that Pollard's punishment and the long-standing US refusal to reduce his sentence have been particularly harsh, considering that he gave information to a friendly nation.
The Israeli government is expected to request cabinet approval for the release of 82 Palestinian prisoners within the next week, as part of Kerry’s negotiated agreement to restart peace talks, with the names drawn from a list of some 103 prisoners submitted by the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu’s request to schedule the timing of their release is widely expected to be granted by ministers, with reports claiming their release will be stagnated across four stages taking place every two months.