Rasmea Odeh: Victim of Institutional Oppression, From Israel to the US

Published on Truthout, November 22.

On November 10, leading Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh, 67, was jailed after being found “guilty” of immigration fraud.

The US government claims Odeh lied on an immigration application when she said she had never been arrested, convicted or imprisoned.

Odeh is accused of concealing that she was charged by the Israeli military with bombing a supermarket when she was 22.

The charge is based on a “confession” obtained by rape and torture at the hands of members of the Israeli military (IDF) more than 40 years ago. Odeh, who moved to the United States in 1995 and serves as the associate director of the Chicago Arab American Action Network (AAAN), was alleged to have “confessed” to the bombing charges imposed by the Israeli military court.

“It was clearly not a fair trial,” Odeh’s lawyer Michael Deutsch, with the People’s Law Office, in Chicago, told Truthout. “The entire defense was gutted by the court’s rulings.”

Continue reading the full story at Truthout.