Jonathan Pollard: Israel Encouraged Me to Commit Suicide

Jonathan Pollard, who served 30 years in a US prison for spying for Israel, has delivered one of his most searing accounts yet of how he says he was treated by Israeli officials during his incarceration.

Speaking in an interview broadcast Monday, Pollard said he felt abandoned by the Israeli government at the very moment he expected support. Instead, he described what he called humiliating and traumatic encounters, including an incident in which an Israeli representative allegedly urged him to take his own life in order to “close the case.”

Pollard said the comment was made directly to him and left him stunned. According to his account, the message was framed as a patriotic act. “You’re a patriot, right?” the representative allegedly said. “So why are you making everyone suffer so much? Why don’t you just do the right thing?” Pollard said he was told that if he ended his life, Israel would bring him home for burial and the affair would be put to rest.

“What was done to me was simply horrific,” Pollard said. “Instead of defending me, the State of Israel denied the obvious and sent someone to tell me to die.”

Pollard said the moment could have ended very differently were it not for the intervention of an American official who was present. According to Pollard, the US representative looked at him and told him unequivocally not to listen. “You must live,” he recalled being told. “One day you will go home.”

The testimony adds to long-standing criticism from Pollard over Israel’s handling of his case, particularly during the decades when Israeli governments distanced themselves from him publicly. His remarks are likely to reopen painful debate in Israel over moral responsibility, loyalty, and the cost paid by those who act in the state’s name.