Ali Abunimah Rights and
Accountability 17 August 2017
Rasmea Odeh
stood in a US federal courtroom in Detroit packed with her supporters, law
enforcement officials and journalists on Thursday and recounted her treatment
at the hands of Israeli occupation forces decades ago.
“They tortured me, they raped
me, they destroyed my house,” the Palestinian community leader said.
This was part of a statement
she made before US District Judge Gershwin Drain imposed a sentence on her. The
hearing was supposed to be a formality, albeit one that sets the 70-year-old on
a new course in her life.
But there was some drama in
the courtroom.
Odeh’s lead lawyer, Michael
Deutsch, told the judge he thought immigration fraud charges should never have
been brought against Odeh. But given the outcome, the court should spare Odeh a
fine that would deplete her modest savings that she will need to start a new
life.
Prosecutor Jonathan Tukel
countered the favorable picture Deutsch had painted of Odeh as a dedicated
community organizer, insisting there was evidence she had been involved in
bombings in Jerusalem in 1969.
“I am not a terrorist”
Then it was Odeh’s turn to speak.
“I’m standing today to raise
my voice on behalf of myself as a Palestinian woman and on behalf of all
Palestinians whether in refugee camps or scattered across the world,” she
stated.
Odeh recounted Israel’s ethnic
cleansing and mass killings of Palestinians and the occupation of their land,
its violations of international law and the role the US plays in enabling it.
She said Palestinians have as much right to resist occupation as Americans
would if their country were invaded.
Drain interrupted Odeh, but
she insisted on carrying on.
“This is the first and last
time to raise my voice,” she said. “I’m not a terrorist and my people are not
terrorists.”
“You weren’t found guilty of
being a terrorist and you didn’t plead guilty to being a terrorist,” Drain replied.
“So all this has no bearing on the sentence I will impose.”
Drain interrupted Odeh twice
more, urging her to wrap up and threatening to jail her for contempt if she
didn’t.
Sentencing
But Drain stuck to the terms
of a deal outlined at a hearing last April when Odeh pleaded
guilty to knowingly making false statements about her history in her
immigration and naturalization applications.
Drain sentenced Odeh to time
served – the 33 days she spent in jail in 2014 – and a fine of $1,000. She will
also lose her US citizenship and be required to leave the country.
“You’ve done a lot of good
community work,” Drain told Odeh. “You’ve helped the people in the Chicago area
quite a bit, all the Palestinian women who immigrated here.”
“But still you were untruthful
and dishonest about the statements you made in your application. I don’t at all
want to minimize the nature of your offense,” he added. “It’s a serious
offense.”
Drain noted the attention
Odeh’s case has garnered and the strong support the community has shown.
“I don’t have any reservations
about the fact that when you get back to Jordan or wherever you go, you will be
welcomed with open arms,” Drain told Odeh. “I know that the Palestinian
community loves and respects you.”
Exactly when she leaves the US
is now up to US immigration authorities.
Many of Odeh’s supporters who
made the trip to Detroit for her final court hearing were at a celebration with
more than 1,200 people in Chicago on Saturday to honor and bid farewell to the
community activist.
Before the sentencing hearing
on Thursday they rallied outside the courthouse as they have during every other
court appointment, this time despite heavy rain.
Thursday’s hearing marked the
end of Odeh’s four-year legal battle with the US government.
When Odeh was indicted in
October 2013, she maintained her innocence, taking
her case to trial instead of accepting the plea deal that was offered at
the time.
She was convicted in a trial
in November 2014, but won
an appeal in February 2016.
She was prepared to go to a
new trial to argue that she had failed to disclose her conviction and
imprisonment by the Israeli military on her immigration forms due to her
post-traumatic stress disorder.
But during the preliminary
phase of the new trial, federal prosecutors expanded
their indictment against Odeh, adding charges that she was a member of a
“terrorist” group.
Odeh was originally charged
with immigration fraud for failing to disclose her conviction by an Israeli
military court in 1969 for alleged involvement in two bombings in Jerusalem,
one of which killed two civilians.
She was also convicted by the
Israeli military court for alleged membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, a group that was designated as a
terrorist organization by the US in 1997.
Difficult fight
As the attorney Michael
Deutsch told Odeh’s supporters at the celebration in Chicago on Saturday, “We
didn’t achieve the goal we set out to achieve – to keep her in this country.”
“The reality was it was going
to be a very, very difficult fight in the federal court,” Deutsch added,
explaining that even if Odeh was acquitted at a new trial, the government still
intended to use administrative procedures to deport her anyway.
“Not guilty in the federal
court would not have kept her in this country,” he said.
“We knew they were going to
make it into a terrorism trial,” Deutsch added. “After a long hard struggle and
talk, we decided the best alternative was to take the plea that we took.”
Deutsch said there were still
“some victories” in the outcome, notably that Odeh won’t spend any more time in
prison on top of the five
weeks she spent in custody in 2014.
“We were able to bring out in
the federal court and the public that the Israeli government systematically
tortures political people, and that Rasmea was tortured and suffers from
post-traumatic stress as a result of that torture,” Deutsch said.
“We were also able to show
that the sham [Israeli] military tribunals that convict 99.4 percent of the
Palestinians that go before them is a sham and is illegal under international
law.”
Deutsch praised supporters who
had traveled to Detroit repeatedly over the years, but reserved his warmest
words for Odeh: “She has been a model for us and given us strength in some of
the darkest periods of our struggle in the courtroom.”
Solidarity
Saturday’s farewell
event was a celebration of Odeh’s years as a community leader in Chicago.
Odeh is associate director of
the Arab American Action Network, where she founded the women’s committee that
is credited with organizing and empowering hundreds of immigrant women.
The Chicago event was a strong
demonstration of cross-community solidarity, endorsed by more than 50
organizations.
“Many of us are sad and angry
that we could not achieve a complete victory in Rasmea’s case,” the iconic
scholar and activist Angela
Davis said
in a keynote address. “As Fidel used to say, we will turn a defeat into a
victory!”
“This is a beautiful event and
a beautiful night … but it’s also a very difficult night for me,” Odeh told the
crowd in an emotional
speech on Saturday.
“You are the ones who
supported me when I needed you, providing a safe place and a warm environment
to help me begin a new life away from here.”
Odeh vowed that she will
continue the struggle for Palestinian rights wherever she lands.
Where her new life will be is
still uncertain. Her lawyers say Odeh, who is a citizen of Jordan, is still
exploring options about where she will go.
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