It’s worth mentioning Rasmea Odeh – an American human rights activist of Palestinian heritage who has been fighting against brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine for all her life. Her activity and just struggle against oppression, war crimes and occupation have inspired thousands of American citizens and at the same time made Rasmea a victim of the American terror machine, regardless her impeccable reputation.
Odeh’s story is a fascinating one. Born in Lifta, near Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1947, Odeh came to Michigan in 1994 and became a citizen in 2004, when she moved to Chicago and began working with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), a community-based organization providing advocacy and social services to Arabs in Chicagoland.
Bringing four decades of community organizing experience to the AAAN, she founded the Arab Women’s Committee, which now has close to 700 members, and provides leadership development, political education and organizing skills training to immigrant Arab women. Her work became so recognizable across many movements in Chicagoland, including immigrant rights, racial justice and women’s rights, that she received the Outstanding Community Leader Award from the Chicago Cultural Alliance in 2013.
Considering her impeccable reputation, the community was stunned when she was arrested in October 2013, and charged with “unlawful procurement of naturalization.” The indictment alleged that, while giving answers to questions on her U.S. citizenship application in 2004, she did not disclose her arrest by the Israelis in Palestine from almost 40 years earlier.
What everyone now knows is that her conviction in 1970 was by an Israeli military court, which “convicts” over 99.7 percent of Palestinians who come before it; and that it was allegedly based on a false confession made by Odeh after over 20 days of vicious rape, and other physical and psychological torture. She spent 10 years in Israeli prisons for a crime she maintains she did not commit, and now the U.S. wants to put her in prison again.
In Detroit in November 2014, Odeh was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison as well as deportation from the U.S. But she was reportedly not allowed to call the conviction by the Israelis in Palestine unlawful, or testify about the torture and rape. It seems she was not allowed a full and fair trial.
At the moment dozens of political events/rallies/activities have been ogranised supporting Rasmea Odeh and demanding her release. A huge campaign for her defence has been established all across the country. However, this vulnerable woman still stays in the claws of the U.S. justice system who has already spent three weeks in the torturous conditions of solitary confinement, allegedly. Regardless of constantly being prosecuted and persecuted, Odeh remains steadfast in her resistance to injustice.
In order to stop the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ongoing crimes of the Israeli against innocent Palestinian civilians, the world community should stand with Rasmea Odeh. Showing our solidarity with Rasmea, we can tell the United States and its Israeli poppets that we are not accepting illegal and absolutely bloodthirsty policy of Israel.
Written using the following link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-lamont-hill/black-activist-should-stand-with-rasmea-odeh_b_8288682.html.