70 From Israel’s Parliament Ask Pollard Pardon

Seventy members of the Israeli Parliament on Friday presented a petition calling on President Reagan to pardon Jonathan Jay Pollard, the Navy analyst who was convicted of passing secrets to Israel.

The petition, presented to U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, was signed by most of the right-wing Likud bloc in the Knesset, or Parliament, and by the left-wing Mapam faction of the Labor Alignment. It was a rare display of unity among Israel’s divided legislators.

The Committee for Justice for the Pollards released news of the petition in the United States.

It called on Reagan to pardon Pollard, a civilian Navy intelligence analyst convicted last year of selling secrets to Israel and sentenced to life in prison. The petitioners also asked Reagan to pardon Pollard’s wife, Anne Henderson-Pollard, who was sentenced to five years in jail for being an accessory.

‘All Israel Is Praying’

“It is very rare for an issue to so cut across party lines as does the plight of the Pollards,” the petitioners said. “All Israel is praying for their release.”

The Israeli government was embarrassed by Pollard’s arrest outside its Washington embassy in 1985, saying it had not authorized the spying operation. Public pressure, however, forced the government to pay for some of Pollard’s legal fees.

The Pollard committee noted that the Pollards’ punishment was particularly harsh in view of the fact that he spied for a U.S. ally.

In general, “spies for allies are treated more leniently, if they are prosecuted at all,” the committee said.