And now the trouble begins.
Anne Pollard, Jonathan first wife, is now claiming that she never wanted a divorce from Jonathan. She now claims that a lawyer came to her, a lawyer who presented himself as working with Shimon Peres, at the time the Prime Minister of Israel, and pushed her to sign divorce papers.
Jonathan has since then become religious and remarried, to his current wife of 22 years, Esther.
source: Kipa
I wonder if she will make some sort of halachic trouble with this. Where has she been ever since the divorce with this claim? Did she just think it was irrelevant because he would never get out of jail, at least not alive, so she didn't bother raising the issue? Even if she is telling the truth, would this present a problem? She did not say she was beaten up or attacked or threatened, though perhaps she understood an implicit threat. All she said, at least in this article, is that she was presented with papers and signed them, and that it was not her initiative though she didn't want it. Is that called a forced gett? She agreed to it and accepted it. I don't think this is the start of a halachic dispute as to the status of the divorce, but it might be.
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
There is no such thing as a forced get from the point of view of the woman - it is not allowed (for Ashkenazim) to divorce her against her will, but it is valid ex post facto (unless you want to say that the witnesses are reshaim for going along with it).
ReplyDeleteShe seems credible. Quite believable.
ReplyDeleteWhen Pollard became famous, many outsiders took over the situation, and Pollard was estranged from his entire family - he refused contact from siblings as well. These outsiders put such a heavy emphasis on Pollard's role as a "hero" that it foiled early - quiet - efforts to get him pardoned or his sentence lessened. He was likely convinced to grasp onto the "hero" approach and thereby took offense to loving family members who wanted to help the quieter process - which included signing a letter of remorse to the US President at the time - and it really only helped inspire those in the justice system to seek maximum penalty.
ReplyDeleteHis relationship with Anne was only one of those casualties.
Was it a divorce or a get?
ReplyDeleteI guess it is easy to say 'where did you come from' now, but I think that in most cases, it is nosy journalists who actually drag this stuff out. And FWIW, even if she was divorced from him, it is peculiar that she either completely stayed out of action or she was actively prevented from staying in action. Not all divorces end in poor relations and many actually end where the couple stay in decent contact.
She's not jewish. No issue of get, forced or agreed. (Did she convert since?)
ReplyDeleteok, thanks for clarification
Delete