Surrounding the show of good will, Netanyahu has asked Trump to allow political prisoner Jonathan Pollard to immigrate to Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked President Donald Trump to allow Jonathan Pollard to immigrate to Israel, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Tuesday.
After serving 30 years in a US prison for charges of spying for Israel, Pollard was finally released in November 2015 and lives in New York under several court-ordered constraints.
He is required to wear a GPS monitoring ankle bracelet, which he claims is causing him to have health problems and to violate the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. He is also banned form using the internet and cannot have contact with the media.
According to the report, Netanyahu told the Trump administration that Pollard would continue to be subject to the same restrictions if he was allowed to immigrate to Israel.
The report stated that Israel is taking the opportunity and the good will surrounding the Trump Administration’s attempts to restart the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to push for Pollard’s release.
Pollard, 63, has been suffering from poor health.
Pollard’s supporters have long criticized his life sentence as excessive compared with penalties for others convicted of spying for friendly countries. Israel, which granted him citizenship 20 years ago, has lobbied for his release.
Netanyahu asked former President Barack Obama to allow him to move to Israel, but Obama tuned down his request.
By: World Israel News Staff