Jonathan Pollard

Early life

Jonathan Jay Pollard was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1954, to a Jewish family, the youngest of three siblings born to Morris and Mildred "Molly" Klein (Kahn) Pollard. In 1961, his family relocated to South Bend, Indiana, where his father Morris, an award-winning microbiologist, taught at the University of Notre Dame.

At an early age, Pollard became aware of the extent to which members of his mother's family, the Kleins (Kahns) from Vilna in Lithuania, had been murdered during the Holocaust. Shortly before his bar mitzvah, he asked his parents to visit the Nazi death camps. Pollard's family made a special effort to instill a sense of Jewish identity in their children, which included devotion to Zionism.

Pollard grew up with what he termed a "racial obligation" to Israel, and made his first visit to Israel in 1970, as part of a science program visiting the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. While there, he was hospitalized after a fight with another student. One Weizmann scientist remembered Pollard as leaving behind "a reputation of being a troublemaker".

Later, Pollard enrolled in several graduate schools, but never completed a post-graduate degree.

Pollard's future wife, Anne Henderson (born 1960), relocated to Washington, D.C., during the autumn of 1978 to live with her (recently divorced) father, Bernard Henderson. During the summer of 1981, she moved into a house on Capitol Hill with two other women and, through a friend of one of her roommates, she first met Pollard. He later said he had fallen in love during their first meeting—they were "an inseparable couple" by November 1981, and in June 1982, when her Capitol Hill lease expired, she moved into Pollard's apartment in Arlington, Virginia. In December 1982, the couple moved into downtown Washington, D.C., to a two-bedroom apartment at 1733 20th Street NW, near Dupont Circle. They married on August 9, 1985, more than a year after Pollard began spying for Israel, in a civil ceremony in Venice, Italy. At the time of their arrest, in November 1985, they were paying US$750 (equivalent to $2,245 in 2025) per month in rent.

Early career

Pollard began applying for intelligence service jobs in 1979 after quitting graduate school, first at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and then at the US Navy. Pollard was refused for the CIA job after taking a polygraph test in which he admitted to prolific illegal drug usage between 1974 and 1978.

He fared better with the Navy, and on September 19, 1979, he was hired by the Navy Field Operational Intelligence Office (NFOIO), an office of the Naval Intelligence Command (NIC). As an intelligence specialist, he was to work on Soviet issues at the Navy Ocean Surveillance Information Center (NOSIC), a department of NFOIO. A background check was required to receive the necessary security clearances, but no polygraph test. In addition to a Top Secret clearance, a more stringent 'Sensitive Compartmented Information' (SCI) clearance was required. The Navy asked for but was denied information from the CIA regarding Pollard, including the results of their pre-employment polygraph test revealing Pollard's excessive drug use.

Pollard was given temporary non-SCI security clearances pending completion of his background check, which was normal for new hires at the time. He was assigned to temporary duty at another NIC Department, the Naval Intelligence Support Center (NISC) Surface Ships Division, where he could work on tasks that did not require SCI clearance. NOSIC's current operations facility and the NISC were co-located in Suitland, Maryland.

Two months after Pollard was hired, he approached the technical director of NOSIC, Richard Haver, and offered to start a back-channel operation with the South African intelligence service. He also lied about his father being involved with CIA operations in South Africa. Haver became wary of Pollard and requested that he be terminated. However, Haver's boss believed that Pollard's supposed connection with South African intelligence could be useful, and he reassigned him to a Navy human intelligence (HUMINT) operation, Task Force 168 (TF-168). This office was within Naval Intelligence Command (NIC), the headquarters for Navy intelligence operations (located in a separate building, but still within the Suitland Federal Center complex.) It was later discovered that Pollard had lied repeatedly during the vetting process for this position: he denied illegal drug use, claimed his father had been a CIA operative, misrepresented his language abilities and his educational achievements, and claimed to have applied for a commission as officer in the Naval Reserve. A month later Pollard received his SCI clearances and was transferred from NISC to TF-168.

Espionage

Soon after Pollard began working at NIC/TF-168, he met Aviem Sella, a combat veteran of the Israeli Air Force. At the time, Sella was on leave from his position as a colonel to gain a master's degree in computer science as a graduate student at New York University. Pollard told Sella that he worked for US naval intelligence, told him about specific incidents where US intelligence was withholding information from Israel, and offered to work as a spy. Though Sella had wondered whether Pollard was part of an FBI operation to recruit an Israeli, he eventually believed him. Sella telephoned his air-force intelligence commander in Tel Aviv for further instructions, and the call was switched to the Air Force chief of staff. Sella was ordered to develop a contact with Pollard, but to be careful. He was warned that either the Americans were offering a "dangle" in order to root out foreign intelligence operations, or if this was a genuine spy, Sella would have to pay careful attention to his work.

Within a few days, in June 1984, Pollard started passing classified information to Sella. He was paid $10,000 cash and given a very expensive diamond and sapphire ring, which Pollard later offered to his girlfriend, Anne Henderson, when proposing to her. Pollard was paid well by the Israelis: he received a salary that eventually reached $2,500 (equivalent to $7,484 in 2025) a month, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash disbursements for hotels, meals, and jewelry. In his pre-sentencing statement to Judge Robinson, Pollard said the money was a benefit that was forced on him. "I did accept money for my services", he acknowledged, but only "as a reflection of how well I was doing my job". He said that he had later told his controller, Rafi Eitan, a long-time spy who at the time headed Lekem, a scientific-intelligence unit in Israel, that, "I not only intended to repay all the money I'd received, but, also, was going to establish a chair at the Israeli General Staff's Intelligence Training Center outside Tel Aviv".

Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigator Ronald Olive has alleged that Pollard passed classified information to South Africa, and attempted, through a third party, to sell classified information to Pakistan on multiple occasions. Pollard also stole classified documents related to China on behalf of his wife, who used the information to advance her personal business interests. She kept these secret materials in the house, where investigating authorities discovered them when Pollard's espionage activity was revealed.

Capture

Pollard's espionage was nearly revealed in 1984 when a department chief noted a report on Soviet military equipment and questioned why it was germane to the office. Pollard, to whom the report was traced, was asked about it, and he replied that he had been working on terrorist networks, which was accepted as valid. In 1985, a co-worker anonymously reported Pollard's removal of classified material from the NIC. The coworker noted that Pollard did not seem to be taking the material to any known appropriate destination, such as other intelligence agencies in the area. Although Pollard was authorized to transport documents and the coworker said the documents were wrapped properly, it appeared unusual that Pollard would be transporting documents on a Friday afternoon when there was little happening and people seemed to be focused on an upcoming long weekend. Ultimately, that report was not acted upon as it was felt it occurred within business hours and Pollard had business being in other offices.

In another instance Pollard's direct superior, having to complete extra work at the office on a Saturday, had walked by Pollard's desk and noticed unsecured classified material. Taking the initiative to secure it, the supervisor glanced over it and saw it was unrelated to antiterrorism matters in the Caribbean, with which the section was concerned. Looking at more unrelated documents, the supervisor believed foreign intelligence might be involved, but was unable to determine which nation might be interested.

Pollard was stopped and questioned by FBI agents about a week later while removing classified material from his work premises. He explained that he was taking it to another analyst at a different agency for a consultation. His story was checked and found to be false. Pollard requested a telephone call to his wife to tell her where he was. As the interview was voluntary, the investigators had no choice but to grant the request. During the call to Anne, Pollard used the code word "cactus", signaling that he was in trouble, and that she should remove all classified material from their home. She attempted to do this, enlisting the help of a neighbor.

Pollard later agreed to a search of his home, which found the few documents which Anne had missed. At this time, the FBI decided to cede the case to Pollard's supervisors, since they had uncovered only mishandling of documents, with no proof that Pollard was passing classified information. The case broke wide open a few days later, when Pollard was asked by his superiors to take a polygraph test. Instead, he admitted to passing documents illegally, without mentioning Israel. The FBI again became involved. A brief time later, Pollard's neighbor, a naval officer, became concerned about safeguarding the 70-pound (32 kg) suitcase full of highly classified material that Anne had given him, and began telephoning around the military intelligence community asking for advice. He cooperated fully with the investigation and was never charged with any crime.

Investigation

Prior to Pollard's plea bargain, the US sent a delegation of diplomats and prosecutors under Abraham Sofaer, Legal Advisor to the United States State Department, to Israel to conduct an investigation on Pollard's spying activity. Israel said initially that Pollard worked for an unauthorized rogue operation, which they maintained for more than ten years.

Sofaer arbitrated a deal whereby Israel was supposed to provide all material information about Pollard's activities and the names of all the people with whom he interacted in exchange for immunity for all the individuals involved except for Pollard himself. When asked to return the stolen material, the Israelis reportedly supplied only a few dozen less sensitive documents. At the time, the Americans knew that Pollard had passed tens of thousands of documents. Due to incomplete document disclosure, the deal was revised under Sofaer to enable Israel to comply with the agreement, on pain of Americans vacating the agreement and depriving the Israelis of immunity. Although Israel produced more documents thereafter, they ultimately still did not comply with the terms of the agreement.

The Israelis created a schedule designed to wear the American investigators down, including many hours per day of commuting in blacked-out buses on rough roads, and frequent switching of buses, leaving them without adequate time to sleep, and preventing them from sleeping on the commute. The identity of Pollard's original handler, Sella, was withheld. All questions had to be translated into Hebrew and answered in Hebrew, and then translated back into English, even though all the parties spoke perfect English. The Commander Jerry Agee remembers that, even as he departed the airport, airport security informed him that "you will never be coming back here again". After his return to the US, Agee found various items had been stolen from his luggage. The abuse came not only from the guards and officials, but also the Israeli media.

The US government began preparing a multi-count criminal indictment against Pollard, which included drug offences and tax fraud along with espionage. The government alleged that Pollard used classified documents to unsuccessfully broker an arms deal with the governments of South Africa, Argentina, and Taiwan. FBI investigators also determined that Pollard met with three Pakistanis and an Iranian foreigner in an attempt to broker arms in 1985. Pollard eventually cooperated with investigators in exchange for a plea agreement for leniency for himself and his wife.

Trial

Pollard's plea discussions with the government sought both to avoid a life sentence for him and to allow Anne Pollard to plead to lesser charges, which the government was otherwise unwilling to let her do. The government, however, did eventually offer Anne Pollard a plea agreement provided that Jonathan Pollard assist the government in its damage assessment. As part of this process, he agreed to polygraph examinations, and interviews with FBI agents and Department of Justice attorneys over a period of several months. During late May 1986, the government offered him a plea agreement, which he accepted. By the terms of that agreement, Pollard was required to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government, which had a maximum prison term of life, and to cooperate fully with the government's ongoing investigation. He promised not to disseminate any information concerning his crimes or his case, or to speak publicly about any classified information, without first receiving permission from the director of naval intelligence. He further agreed that failure of Anne Pollard to obey the terms of her agreement entitled the government to void his agreement, and vice versa. In return for Pollard's plea, the government promised not to charge him with additional crimes.

Three weeks before Pollard's sentencing, Wolf Blitzer, at the time a Jerusalem Post correspondent, performed a jail-cell interview with Pollard. The interview formed the basis of Blitzer's newspaper article, which was also printed in The Washington Post on February 15, 1987, under the headline "Pollard: Not A Bumbler, but Israel's Master Spy". Pollard told Blitzer about some of the information he provided the Israelis: reconnaissance satellite photography of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Tunisia, which was used for Operation Wooden Leg; specific capabilities of Libya's air defenses; and "the pick of US intelligence about Arab and Islamic conventional and unconventional military activity, from Morocco to Pakistan and every country in between. This included both 'friendly' and 'unfriendly' Arab countries." Prosecutor Joseph diGenova presented the Blitzer prison interview as evidence in his sentencing memorandum that Pollard had engaged in "unauthorized disclosure of classified information".

Prior to sentencing, Pollard and his wife Anne gave further defiant media interviews in which they defended their spying and attempted to rally Jewish Americans to their cause, diGenova said. In a 60 Minutes interview from prison, Anne said, "I feel my husband and I did what we were expected to do, and what our moral obligation was as Jews, what our moral obligation was as human beings, and I have no regrets about that". Pollard started to attack some Jewish Americans as traitors, calling Abraham Sofaer, for instance, "less than admirable" for his involvement in the prosecution.

Sentencing and incarceration

The Pollards were sentenced on March 4, 1987. While the prosecutor, in compliance with the plea agreement, recommended that Pollard receive "only a substantial number of years in prison", Judge Aubrey Robinson Jr. was not obliged to follow the recommendation. Noting that Pollard had violated multiple conditions of the plea agreement, he imposed a life sentence on the basis of a classified damage-assessment memorandum submitted by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.

Pollard was then moved from FCC Petersburg in Virginia, where he had been held since 1986, to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to undergo a battery of mental health tests. In June 1988, he was transferred to USP Marion and in 1993 to FCI Butner Medium at the Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina. In May 1991, Pollard asked Avi Weiss to be his personal rabbi. Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was also an advocate of Pollard, and campaigned for his release from prison.

Anne Pollard was sentenced to five years, but was paroled after three and a half years due to health problems. Pollard filed for divorce after Anne's release. While he reportedly said that he expected to be jailed for the remainder of his life, and did not want Anne to be bound to him, Anne later told a reporter that the divorce papers were served with no warning or explanation of any kind.

After finalization of his divorce from Anne, Pollard allegedly married Esther "Elaine" Zeitz, a Canadian teacher and activist based in Toronto who had organized a campaign for his release. In 1996, she initiated a public hunger strike, but ended it 19 days later after meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who pledged to increase his efforts to secure Pollard's release. Media sources and Pollard family members have questioned whether Pollard and Zeitz ever legally wed. Prison officials told Ha'aretz that there is no record of a marriage ceremony having been requested or performed. After completing her parole, Anne Pollard emigrated to Israel, where she lived in Tel Aviv on a government stipend supplemented by occasional private donations.

Appeals

In 1989, Pollard's attorneys filed a motion for withdrawal of his guilty plea and trial by jury due to the government's failure to abide by terms of the plea agreement. The motion was denied. An appeals court affirmed the denial. Several years later, with a different attorney, Pollard filed a petition for habeas corpus. A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled two-to-one to deny Pollard's petition, due primarily to the failure of Pollard's original attorneys to file his appeal in a timely manner. Judge Stephen F. Williams dissented, "because the government's breach of the plea agreement was a fundamental miscarriage of justice requiring relief under 28 USC. § 2255".

In July 2005, Pollard again filed a motion for a new trial, this time on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. He also sought access to classified documents pertinent to his new lawyers' efforts in preparing a clemency petition. The Court of Appeals rejected both arguments. During February 2006, his attorneys filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court regarding access to the classified documents. They argued that the separation of powers doctrine is a flexible doctrine that does not dictate the complete separation of the three branches of Government from one another. The brief claimed that the Court of Appeals violated this principle in asserting sua sponte that the judiciary has no jurisdiction over the classified documents due to the fact that access was for the ultimate purpose of clemency, an executive function. The Supreme Court denied the cert petition in March 2006, ruling that the president's clemency power would be wholly unaffected by successor counsel's access to the classified documents, and that the classified documents were sealed by a protective order, a judicial procedure.

Israeli efforts to secure Pollard's release

In 1988, Israel proposed a three-way exchange, wherein Pollard and his wife would be released and deported to Israel, Israel would release Soviet spy Marcus Klingberg, and the USSR would exercise its influence with Syria and Iran to release American hostages held there by Syrian- and Iranian-sponsored militant groups.

In 1990, Israel reportedly considered offering to release Yosef Amit, an Israeli military intelligence officer serving a 12-year sentence for spying for the United States and another NATO power, in exchange for Pollard. Sources conflict on the outcome: according to one, Amit made it known that he had no wish to be exchanged. By another account, Israeli officials vetoed the idea, fearing that it would only cause more anger in the United States. (Amit served his sentence and was released in 1993.)

During the 1990s former University of Notre Dame president Theodore Hesburgh, a family friend of Pollard's, attempted to broker a deal whereby Pollard would be released, "be banished to Israel", and would renounce his US citizenship. Mike Royko of the Chicago Tribune wrote columns in February 1994 endorsing the idea. White House officials expressed little enthusiasm for Hesburgh's plan, and he ceased further efforts.

During 1995, Israel again attempted to arrange a three-way exchange, this time involving American spies imprisoned in Russia: Israel would release Klingberg, the Russians would release US agents who had remained in prison since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the United States would then free Pollard.

Israel's official stance until 1998 was that Pollard worked for an unauthorized rogue organization. During May of that year, Premier Netanyahu admitted that Pollard had in fact been an Israeli agent, answering directly to high-ranking officials of Lekem, the Israeli Bureau for Scientific Relations. The Israeli government paid at least two of the attorneys—Richard A. Hibey and Hamilton Philip Fox III—working for his release.

During campaigning leading up to the 1999 Israeli general election, Netanyahu and his challenger Ehud Barak disputed in the media over which had been more supportive of Pollard. In 2002, Netanyahu visited Pollard in prison. In 2007 he pledged that, if re-elected Premier, he would obtain Pollard's release.

Citizenship

Pollard applied for Israeli citizenship in 1995; the Ministry of Interior initially refused on grounds that Israel did not grant citizenship to persons who had not yet immigrated, but reversed its decision and granted the petition on November 22, 1995.

Some sources claim that Pollard then renounced his United States citizenship, was now solely an Israeli citizen, and would be deported to Israel if he were released from prison. Others continue to identify him as a US citizen. According to the United States Department of State, there are no peacetime regulations in effect under 8 U.S.C. § 1481(a)(6) to empower the attorney general to process renunciations of citizenship from persons physically present in the United States, and by 8 U.S.C. § 1483, it is not possible for a person to lose US citizenship while physically present in the United States except by renunciation filed with the Attorney General, or conviction of treason.

On December 30, 2020, Jonathan Pollard and his wife officially immigrated to Israel and became full Israeli citizens.

Official reactions and public pro-Pollard campaigns

In addition to the release requests by the Israeli government, there was a long-running public campaign to free Pollard. The organizers include the Pollard family, his ex-wife, Anne, and Jewish groups in the US and Israel. The campaign's main points claimed that Pollard spied for an ally instead of an enemy, that his sentence was out of proportion to those given to others who committed similar crimes, and that the US failed to live up to its plea bargain. Some Israeli activists compared President Bush to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders who have taken Israeli soldiers prisoner.

Some who feel the sentence was excessive claim that although Pollard pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain for himself and his wife, he was shown no leniency, and was given the maximum sentence with the exception of death; Pollard's opponents answer that Pollard violated the terms of that plea agreement even before the sentence was given.

In 1993, political science professor and Orthodox Jewish activist David Luchins organized an unsuccessful appeal to President Bill Clinton to commute Pollard's sentence. The appeal included a letter of remorse from Pollard in which he admitted violating both US laws and Jewish religious tenets. Pollard later reportedly regretted his admission, suspecting that it worsened his chances for clemency. Pollard loyalists blamed Luchins, who received death threats and required federal protection for a period of time.

The issue of his imprisonment has sometimes arisen amidst Israeli domestic politics. Benjamin Netanyahu has been particularly vocal in lobbying for Pollard's release, visiting Pollard in prison in 2002. He raised the issue with President Clinton during the Wye River peace talks in October 1998. In his autobiography, Clinton wrote that he favored releasing Pollard, but the objections of US intelligence officials were too strong:

For all the sympathy Pollard generated in Israel, he was a hard case to push in America; he had sold our country's secrets for money, not conviction, and for years had not shown any remorse. When I talked to Sandy Berger and George Tenet, they were adamantly opposed to letting Pollard go, as was Madeleine Albright.

Official requests for clemency

Yitzhak Rabin was the first Israeli premier to intervene on Pollard's behalf; in 1995, he petitioned President Bill Clinton for a pardon.

At a critical juncture in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations at the Wye River Conference in 1998, Premier Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to make the outcome contingent on Pollard's release. "If we signed an agreement with Arafat, I expected a pardon for Pollard", he wrote. Clinton later confirmed in his memoir that he tentatively agreed to the condition, "but I would have to check with our people". When that information was made public, the American intelligence community responded immediately, with unequivocal anger. Seven former Secretaries of Defense—Donald Rumsfeld, Melvin R. Laird, Frank C. Carlucci, Richard B. Cheney, Caspar W. Weinberger, James R. Schlesinger and Elliot L. Richardson—along with several senior congressional leaders, publicly voiced their vigorous opposition to any form of clemency. Central Intelligence Agency director George J. Tenet initially denied reports that he had threatened to resign if Pollard were to be released, but eventually confirmed that he had. Other Clinton advisors, including Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger, were "adamantly opposed" to clemency as well. Dennis Ross confirmed Clinton's version of events in his book The Missing Peace.

Clinton, who had not expected such forceful opposition, told Netanyahu that Pollard's release could not be a condition of the Wye River Conference agreement, and ordered a formal review of Pollard's case. According to Clinton, Inc. by Daniel Halper, Netanyahu also attempted to exert pressure during the conference by referencing intercepted recordings of Clinton's conversations with Monica Lewinsky. Around that time, Insight magazine reported that Israeli intelligence had compromised secure communications at the White House, though the scope of the breach remained uncertain.

Another Israeli request was made in New York on September 14, 2005, and refused by President George W. Bush. A request that Pollard be designated a Prisoner of Zion was rejected by the High Court of Justice of Israel on January 16, 2006. Another appeal for intervention on Pollard's behalf was rejected by the High Court on March 20, 2006.

On January 10, 2008, the subject of Pollard's pardon was again brought up for discussion, this time by Premier Ehud Olmert, during President George W. Bush's first visit to Israel as president. Subsequently, this request was refused by President Bush. The next day, at a dinner attended by several ministers of the Israeli government (in addition to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), the subject of Pollard's release was again discussed. This time, however, Premier Olmert commented that it was not the appropriate occasion to discuss Pollard's fate.

Parole

On July 28, 2015, the United States Parole Commission announced that Pollard would be released on November 20, 2015. The US Justice Department informed Pollard's legal team that it would not contest the Parole Commission's unanimous July 7 decision.

The terms of release set by the Parole Commission stipulated that Pollard must remain on parole for a minimum of five years. His parole restrictions required him to remain in New York City unless granted special permission to travel outside. His parole officer was also authorized to impose a curfew and set exclusion zones within the city. He was ordered to wear electronic monitoring devices to track his movements. In addition, press interviews and Internet access without prior permission were prohibited. Pollard's attorneys appealed the conditions to the Parole Commission's appeals board, which eliminated only one restriction, that of requiring prior permission to use the Internet. However, it was ruled that his Internet use would be subjected to monitoring. Pollard's attorneys and Ayelet Shaked, Israel's Justice Minister, urged President Obama to exercise his powers of clemency to waive Pollard's parole requirements and allow him to relocate to Israel immediately; but a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council announced that the president would not intervene.

After his release on November 20, 2015, as scheduled, Pollard relocated to an apartment secured for him by his attorneys in New York City. A 7:00 pm to 7:00 am curfew was imposed on him. A job offer, as a research analyst at a Manhattan investment company, was retracted due to the inspections to which his employer's computers would be subjected. His attorneys immediately filed a motion challenging the terms of his parole, arguing that the Internet restrictions rendered him unemployable as an analyst, and the GPS-equipped ankle bracelet was unnecessary, as he was not a flight risk. The filing included affidavits from McFarlane and former Senate Intelligence Committee member Dennis DeConcini declaring that any secrets learned by Pollard thirty years ago were no longer secret, and had no value today. On August 12, 2016, a federal judge denied the motion on the basis of a statement from James Clapper, the director of US National Intelligence, asserting that contrary to the MacFarlane and DeConcini affidavits, much of the information stolen by Pollard during the 1980s remained secret. The judge also cited Pollard's Israeli citizenship, obtained during his incarceration, as evidence that he was indeed a flight risk.

Emigration to Israel

Although Pollard expressed a desire to relocate to Israel, he did not immediately do so after his parole expired due to his wife's health issues, and remained in the US for over a month while she underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer. Pollard and his wife, Esther, finally arrived in Israel on December 30, 2020, on a private jet owned by US billionaire Sheldon Adelson. They were greeted on arrival by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who handed Pollard his Israeli documentation. Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said that Pollard would be granted a government stipend equivalent to the pensions granted to former Mossad and Shin Bet agents. In accordance with COVID-19 restrictions, they went into quarantine for two weeks after their arrival. Pollard and his wife settled in Jerusalem. Esther Pollard died on January 31, 2022. She had been hospitalized for two weeks after contracting COVID-19.

Pollard was honored by Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion at a Jerusalem Day gala in 2021. Pollard gave the main address to the gala, in which he accused the US government of anti-Semitism, termed the U.S State Department and the United Nations enemies of Israel, and referred to the Biden administration as "Amalek".

Pollard refused an offer to campaign for the Knesset on the Otzma Yehudit party's electoral slate in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, saying that he had "suffered enough".

During mid-September 2022, Pollard announced his engagement to Rivka Abrahams-Donin, a widowed mother of seven children. They married on October 20.

On November 23, 2023, Pollard posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Israel should have arrested the families of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during the Gaza war to prevent them from interfering in Israel's war plans. In February 2024, he advocated moving the entire Arab population out of Gaza, preferably to Ireland, adding that "the Irish deserve it".

On November 20, 2025, The New York Times reported that Pollard had a private meeting with the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, at the American Embassy in Jerusalem in the past July. Pollard confirmed that the meeting occurred, characterizing it as "friendly" and stating that the "main purpose" of the meeting was to thank Huckabee for his vocal support for Pollard while he was incarcerated. Karoline Leavitt stated that the White House had not been notified of the meeting, but that President Trump "stands by" Ambassador Huckabee.

In popular culture

Pollard's story inspired the movie Les Patriotes (The Patriots) by French director Éric Rochant in which American actor Richard Masur portrayed a character resembling Pollard.

Pollard's story inspired the stage play The Law of Return by playwright Martin Blank, which was produced Off-Broadway at the 4th Street Theater NYC. Blank is also developing a screenplay for the film adaptation of the play.

Beit Yonatan, an Israeli-owned apartment building in Silwan, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, is named after Pollard.

Street artist Solomon Souza added Pollard's portrait to his collection of spray paint art at the Mahane Yehuda Market after Pollard's release.

In 1995, a play named Pollard (alternatively titled Pollard's Trial) debuted at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv. It was performed at the Knesset in 2011. The part of Pollard was played by Israeli actor Rami Baruch.

In 2012, SHI 360 released the song "Yonathan".

In the 1994 novel The Fist of God by Frederick Forsyth, the recent case of Pollard's espionage is a source of mild tension between the Mossad and the CIA.