The Hevron Hills Regional Council Sunday night recognized Esther Pollard in a ceremony celebrating 25 years since the council was established. More than 5,000 people attended the festivities, at which the wife of Jonathan Pollard was praised for working for the freedom of her husband, who is serving a life prison term in the United States for passing classified information to Israel.
 
Council leader Tzviki Bar-Chai told the crowd that the population in the southern Hevron Hills has grown by 24 percent in the past five years, mainly in the religious communities.