Bernstein writes: "The details behind Odeh's arrest go to the heart of the
matter of an ongoing relationship between the US and Israel - a national
security collaboration that allows the Israelis to push forward with a
policy that can only be described as ethnic cleansing."
Rasmea Odeh raises her fist as she leaves federal court in Detroit Thursday,
March 12, 2015. (photo: AP)
A New Day for Rasmea Odeh: Throwing the Spotlight on Israeli Torture
By Dennis J. Bernstein, Reader Supported News
03 April 16
What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?" wrote the
late poet and biographer Muriel Rukeyser: "The world would split open." And
what would happen if the one woman telling the truth were Palestinian, and
she was blowing the whistle about systematic torture of Palestinian
prisoners, including the rape of woman under Israeli custody?
Meet Rasmea Odeh. Odeh is a 67-year-old Chicago-based Palestinian community
leader. She immigrated to the US in 1994 and received her United States
citizenship in 2004. Since that time she has worked diligently and
effectively with community organizations that provide crucial care and
support for immigrant women.
Odeh is the associate director of the Chicago-based Arab-American Action
Network and a founder of the Arab Women's Committee, which provides ESL,
social services, civil rights education and leadership training to over 800
immigrant and refugee women in the Windy City. She is also a convicted
felon.
In October 2013 Rasmea was arrested, charged, and ultimately convicted of
one count of unlawful procurement of naturalization (of her US citizenship).
A few months prior to her arrest by Homeland Security, she received the
Outstanding Community Leader Award from the Chicago Cultural Alliance for
her work with Arab-Americans, women in particular.
The details behind Odeh's arrest go to the heart of the matter of an ongoing
relationship between the US and Israel - a national security collaboration
that allows the Israelis to push forward with a policy that can only be
described as ethnic cleansing. The policy's core is seizing Palestinian land
by any means necessary, while supporting an expanding settlers' movement.
Illegal arrest, imprisonment, and torture are tools used daily by Israeli
occupiers to quell Palestinian resistance to the seizure of their land,
house by house and acre by acre.
On February 25, Rasmea Odeh was granted an appeal for a possible new trial.
I sat down with Lina Baroudi, a staff attorney for the Arab Resource and
Organizing Center (AROC) to talk about the details of the case. AROC is a
partner organization with the Arab-American Action Network where Rasmea Odeh
is associated. They are working together on a national defense committee.
Let's begin in occupied Palestine.
Dennis Bernstein: Please explain how Rasmea Odeh's treatment as a
Palestinian woman by Israeli forces began.
Lina Baroudi: In October 2013 Rasmea was charged with one count of unlawful
procurement of naturalization, which is US citizenship. She is accused of
failing to report a prior conviction on her naturalization application,
which was filed in 2004. The accusation is related to her conviction by an
Israeli military court more than 45 years ago and her subsequent
imprisonment for 10 years in an Israeli prison.
DB: Ten years, 45 years ago.
Baroudi: Absolutely. She is one of the few women who have publicly spoken
about the brutal, sexual, psychological, and physical torture Palestinian
prisoners endure at the hands of the Israeli government. That torture is
what ultimately led to her coerced confession and conviction, a conviction
she been very public about and has testified about before the United
Nations.
DB: It took them ten years to come after Rasmea Odeh for this one count: How
do you explain the timing? There must have been somebody pushing for this in
the US.
Baroudi: Yes. The immigration charge was a pretext to attack Rasmea as an
icon of the Palestine Liberation Movement. She's been long involved with
that movement in the US and the case against her grew out of an
investigation of 23 anti-war and Palestinian community organizers in Chicago
and Minneapolis in 2010, all of whom were subpoenaed to a Grand Jury but
were never ultimately charged with anything.
DB: This is how they came back to her.
Baroudi: Exactly.
DB: She went from a respected community leader to handcuffs and jail. There
must be multiple sufferings as a result.
Baroudi: Yes, in 2014, the US District Court in Detroit convicted her of the
charge of unlawful procurement of naturalization. She was sentenced to 18
months of imprisonment and subsequent deportation from the US, where she's
lived for so many years. During the unfair trial, Rasmea was prevented from
presenting evidence about the events that led to her conviction by an
Israeli military tribunal.
DB: So she couldn't talk about the torture.
Baroudi: She couldn't talk about any evidence. The judge, ironically,
allowed in the actual conviction documents, but she wasn't allowed to
testify about the conviction or the circumstances that led to her arrest,
her torture, her coerced confession, her imprisonment, or the subsequent
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from which she suffers to this day. In
addition, her expert witness on PTSD was also barred from testifying. It's
incomprehensible that the judge admitted her conviction into evidence but
barred any mention of the torture and coerced confession that led to it,
because he said they were irrelevant. The Israeli military court system has
a conviction rate of 99% for the Palestinians brought before it. This flaw
in the judge's reasoning was the basis of the appeal, which is that Rasmea
was denied the right to present a complete defense because the trial court
precluded her and her expert witness from testifying about how her PTSD
affected the naturalization process.
DB: On what grounds was the appeal granted?
Baroudi: There were several arguments put forth by her legal team. On
February 25, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted the
appeal and vacated her conviction. They looked at the de-naturalization
statute, which they said criminalizes knowingly procuring naturalization,
contrary to law. PTSD is relevant to whether Rasmea knowingly omitted
information on her citizenship application. They found that the trial
court's conclusion - that her PTSD and circumstances of her arrest and
torture were irrelevant - was wrong.
DB: The court implies they believe her that she was tortured and has a right
to tell that story.
Baroudi: Yes. The court recognizes that PTSD is relevant to the immigration
process and that when the process is asking about your background and
arrests and the judge allows convictions from a military court system -
referred to as a kangaroo court system by many organizations and well known
scholars - then PTSD is going to be relevant.
DB: Where does it go? There are two possible outcomes.
Baroudi: The decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals becomes final on
April 10. At that point the case goes back to the trial court. The first
scenario is that the trial judge can find another basis to exclude Rasmea's
and her expert witness's testimony and that she can appeal again to the 6th
Circuit Court of Appeals. The more likely scenario is that the trial court
allows in the PTSD testimony, and that Rasmea and her expert witness will be
allowed to testify at a new hearing about the circumstances of her
conviction by an Israeli military court and how the lifelong effects of her
PTSD may have affected the naturalization process.
DB: What is your assessment as to the possibility of a positive outcome?
Baroudi: The Sixth Circuit decision language is encouraging the trial court
to allow in the testimony because they made a finding that PTSD is relevant.
I expect the second scenario, which is a new trial.
DB: Why was she targeted? Torture is such a touchy subject. The Israelis,
who have so many complaints you can't keep track of them, are sensitive on
this front. Now the Americans are taking their lessons from the Israelis, so
the American government is sensitive about torture. There are highly
political forces operating, and some are coming down on her and others.
Baroudi: The case came out of an investigation of the 23 anti-war and
Palestinian community organizers in Chicago and Minneapolis. She
specifically came under attack by the US government because she's a
Palestinian, an Arab, an immigrant, and a woman. She's under attack because
for decades she's organized for Palestinian liberation and
self-determination, the right of return, and an end of Israeli occupation
and colonization. This case is of special significance for immigrant
activists in the US because it highlights the level of surveillance and
repression employed by the US to further the interests of its allies,
including the Israeli state - namely by silencing and intimidating those who
speak out and organize against racism and Zionism. Last week the University
of California regents adopted a statement condemning anti-Semitic forms of
anti-Zionism on university campuses. Although it is unenforceable and raises
First Amendment concerns, it's another tool. Rasmea's case is about stopping
political speech that advocates for the self-determination of the
Palestinians.
DB: This is the age of degrading, disparaging, undermining the Arab-American
community. We have a candidate who wants to purge the community. This is
happening in this cauldron.
Baroudi: Absolutely. In the post 9/11 climate, prosecutors have used fear
mongering and growing anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia to target Arabs and
Muslims and launch a smear campaign against people like Rasmea.
DB: Why is this case so important to you?
Baroudi: I am the staff attorney at the Arab Resource and Organizing Center
in San Francisco and we work closely with the Arab-American Activist Network
in Chicago, which Rasmea is the associate director of, so AROC has been on
the national defense committee since its inception. We use local efforts to
amplify the demands coming out of Chicago for Rasmea's defense. We organize
to raise awareness about the case, raise money for her legal defense,
conduct educational forums and direct actions. As a staff attorney who
represents immigrants of an Arab organization, this case will affect my
clients and how they will be treated as well.
DB: Have you been monitoring an upsurge in violence, threats, and attacks?
Baroudi: Yes. We've definitely seen a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Arab
racism in the Bay Area. We have many complaints, and much fear. We've also
seen how they affect our immigration cases, which are being held up for
security background checks for much longer than they used to be.
DB: Is Rasmea free pending appeal?
Baroudi: Yes, she is out as of last year on $50,000 bond. She is free, still
working at the Arab-American Activist Network in Chicago, doing well. Now
we're waiting to see what will happen at the trial court.
________________________________________
Dennis J. Bernstein is the executive producer of Flashpoints, syndicated on
Pacifica Radio, and is the recipient of a 2015 Pillar Award for his work as
a journalist whistleblower. He is most recently the author of Special Ed:
Voices from a Hidden Classroom.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Rasmea Odeh raises her fist as she leaves federal court in Detroit Thursday,
March 12, 2015. (photo: AP)
http://readersupportednews.org/http://readersupportednews.org/
A New Day for Rasmea Odeh: Throwing the Spotlight on Israeli Torture
By Dennis J. Bernstein, Reader Supported News
03 April 16
hat would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?" wrote the
late poet and biographer Muriel Rukeyser: "The world would split open." And
what would happen if the one woman telling the truth were Palestinian, and
she was blowing the whistle about systematic torture of Palestinian
prisoners, including the rape of woman under Israeli custody?
Meet Rasmea Odeh. Odeh is a 67-year-old Chicago-based Palestinian community
leader. She immigrated to the US in 1994 and received her United States
citizenship in 2004. Since that time she has worked diligently and
effectively with community organizations that provide crucial care and
support for immigrant women.
Odeh is the associate director of the Chicago-based Arab-American Action
Network and a founder of the Arab Women's Committee, which provides ESL,
social services, civil rights education and leadership training to over 800
immigrant and refugee women in the Windy City. She is also a convicted
felon.
In October 2013 Rasmea was arrested, charged, and ultimately convicted of
one count of unlawful procurement of naturalization (of her US citizenship).
A few months prior to her arrest by Homeland Security, she received the
Outstanding Community Leader Award from the Chicago Cultural Alliance for
her work with Arab-Americans, women in particular.
The details behind Odeh's arrest go to the heart of the matter of an ongoing
relationship between the US and Israel - a national security collaboration
that allows the Israelis to push forward with a policy that can only be
described as ethnic cleansing. The policy's core is seizing Palestinian land
by any means necessary, while supporting an expanding settlers' movement.
Illegal arrest, imprisonment, and torture are tools used daily by Israeli
occupiers to quell Palestinian resistance to the seizure of their land,
house by house and acre by acre.
On February 25, Rasmea Odeh was granted an appeal for a possible new trial.
I sat down with Lina Baroudi, a staff attorney for the Arab Resource and
Organizing Center (AROC) to talk about the details of the case. AROC is a
partner organization with the Arab-American Action Network where Rasmea Odeh
is associated. They are working together on a national defense committee.
Let's begin in occupied Palestine.
Dennis Bernstein: Please explain how Rasmea Odeh's treatment as a
Palestinian woman by Israeli forces began.
Lina Baroudi: In October 2013 Rasmea was charged with one count of unlawful
procurement of naturalization, which is US citizenship. She is accused of
failing to report a prior conviction on her naturalization application,
which was filed in 2004. The accusation is related to her conviction by an
Israeli military court more than 45 years ago and her subsequent
imprisonment for 10 years in an Israeli prison.
DB: Ten years, 45 years ago.
Baroudi: Absolutely. She is one of the few women who have publicly spoken
about the brutal, sexual, psychological, and physical torture Palestinian
prisoners endure at the hands of the Israeli government. That torture is
what ultimately led to her coerced confession and conviction, a conviction
she been very public about and has testified about before the United
Nations.
DB: It took them ten years to come after Rasmea Odeh for this one count: How
do you explain the timing? There must have been somebody pushing for this in
the US.
Baroudi: Yes. The immigration charge was a pretext to attack Rasmea as an
icon of the Palestine Liberation Movement. She's been long involved with
that movement in the US and the case against her grew out of an
investigation of 23 anti-war and Palestinian community organizers in Chicago
and Minneapolis in 2010, all of whom were subpoenaed to a Grand Jury but
were never ultimately charged with anything.
DB: This is how they came back to her.
Baroudi: Exactly.
DB: She went from a respected community leader to handcuffs and jail. There
must be multiple sufferings as a result.
Baroudi: Yes, in 2014, the US District Court in Detroit convicted her of the
charge of unlawful procurement of naturalization. She was sentenced to 18
months of imprisonment and subsequent deportation from the US, where she's
lived for so many years. During the unfair trial, Rasmea was prevented from
presenting evidence about the events that led to her conviction by an
Israeli military tribunal.
DB: So she couldn't talk about the torture.
Baroudi: She couldn't talk about any evidence. The judge, ironically,
allowed in the actual conviction documents, but she wasn't allowed to
testify about the conviction or the circumstances that led to her arrest,
her torture, her coerced confession, her imprisonment, or the subsequent
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from which she suffers to this day. In
addition, her expert witness on PTSD was also barred from testifying. It's
incomprehensible that the judge admitted her conviction into evidence but
barred any mention of the torture and coerced confession that led to it,
because he said they were irrelevant. The Israeli military court system has
a conviction rate of 99% for the Palestinians brought before it. This flaw
in the judge's reasoning was the basis of the appeal, which is that Rasmea
was denied the right to present a complete defense because the trial court
precluded her and her expert witness from testifying about how her PTSD
affected the naturalization process.
DB: On what grounds was the appeal granted?
Baroudi: There were several arguments put forth by her legal team. On
February 25, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted the
appeal and vacated her conviction. They looked at the de-naturalization
statute, which they said criminalizes knowingly procuring naturalization,
contrary to law. PTSD is relevant to whether Rasmea knowingly omitted
information on her citizenship application. They found that the trial
court's conclusion - that her PTSD and circumstances of her arrest and
torture were irrelevant - was wrong.
DB: The court implies they believe her that she was tortured and has a right
to tell that story.
Baroudi: Yes. The court recognizes that PTSD is relevant to the immigration
process and that when the process is asking about your background and
arrests and the judge allows convictions from a military court system -
referred to as a kangaroo court system by many organizations and well known
scholars - then PTSD is going to be relevant.
DB: Where does it go? There are two possible outcomes.
Baroudi: The decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals becomes final on
April 10. At that point the case goes back to the trial court. The first
scenario is that the trial judge can find another basis to exclude Rasmea's
and her expert witness's testimony and that she can appeal again to the 6th
Circuit Court of Appeals. The more likely scenario is that the trial court
allows in the PTSD testimony, and that Rasmea and her expert witness will be
allowed to testify at a new hearing about the circumstances of her
conviction by an Israeli military court and how the lifelong effects of her
PTSD may have affected the naturalization process.
DB: What is your assessment as to the possibility of a positive outcome?
Baroudi: The Sixth Circuit decision language is encouraging the trial court
to allow in the testimony because they made a finding that PTSD is relevant.
I expect the second scenario, which is a new trial.
DB: Why was she targeted? Torture is such a touchy subject. The Israelis,
who have so many complaints you can't keep track of them, are sensitive on
this front. Now the Americans are taking their lessons from the Israelis, so
the American government is sensitive about torture. There are highly
political forces operating, and some are coming down on her and others.
Baroudi: The case came out of an investigation of the 23 anti-war and
Palestinian community organizers in Chicago and Minneapolis. She
specifically came under attack by the US government because she's a
Palestinian, an Arab, an immigrant, and a woman. She's under attack because
for decades she's organized for Palestinian liberation and
self-determination, the right of return, and an end of Israeli occupation
and colonization. This case is of special significance for immigrant
activists in the US because it highlights the level of surveillance and
repression employed by the US to further the interests of its allies,
including the Israeli state - namely by silencing and intimidating those who
speak out and organize against racism and Zionism. Last week the University
of California regents adopted a statement condemning anti-Semitic forms of
anti-Zionism on university campuses. Although it is unenforceable and raises
First Amendment concerns, it's another tool. Rasmea's case is about stopping
political speech that advocates for the self-determination of the
Palestinians.
DB: This is the age of degrading, disparaging, undermining the Arab-American
community. We have a candidate who wants to purge the community. This is
happening in this cauldron.
Baroudi: Absolutely. In the post 9/11 climate, prosecutors have used fear
mongering and growing anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia to target Arabs and
Muslims and launch a smear campaign against people like Rasmea.
DB: Why is this case so important to you?
Baroudi: I am the staff attorney at the Arab Resource and Organizing Center
in San Francisco and we work closely with the Arab-American Activist Network
in Chicago, which Rasmea is the associate director of, so AROC has been on
the national defense committee since its inception. We use local efforts to
amplify the demands coming out of Chicago for Rasmea's defense. We organize
to raise awareness about the case, raise money for her legal defense,
conduct educational forums and direct actions. As a staff attorney who
represents immigrants of an Arab organization, this case will affect my
clients and how they will be treated as well.
DB: Have you been monitoring an upsurge in violence, threats, and attacks?
Baroudi: Yes. We've definitely seen a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Arab
racism in the Bay Area. We have many complaints, and much fear. We've also
seen how they affect our immigration cases, which are being held up for
security background checks for much longer than they used to be.
DB: Is Rasmea free pending appeal?
Baroudi: Yes, she is out as of last year on $50,000 bond. She is free, still
working at the Arab-American Activist Network in Chicago, doing well. Now
we're waiting to see what will happen at the trial court.
Dennis J. Bernstein is the executive producer of Flashpoints, syndicated on
Pacifica Radio, and is the recipient of a 2015 Pillar Award for his work as
a journalist whistleblower. He is most recently the author of Special Ed:
Voices from a Hidden Classroom.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
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