Ariel Sharon: Peres, Shamir 'Handed Over' Pollard To Us

January 16, 1996 - The Jerusalem Post

MK Ariel Sharon (Likud) yesterday accused the 1984 national unity government of "handing over" Jonathan Pollard to the US to face espionage charges by refusing to accept responsibility for his actions.

Sharon said he had told then-prime minister Shimon Peres and foreign minister Yitzhak Shamir not to submit documents that could incriminate Pollard.

Shamir had told him at the time: "

A country needs to know how to sacrifice a person

Sharon also accused successive governments of not making a serious effort to obtain Pollard's release.

"The handling of the Pollard affair was fundamentally mistaken. Even though I am not personally connected with the subject, I had told Peres and Shamir that in my opinion Israel must apologize for what happened and ensure that it not recur. The investigation should not have been allowed to be carried out and documents in our possession not handed over. [I said] if we accept the US's demands

we are dooming Pollard to a life sentence