PSLS, CCR and 64 other rights groups sign statement opposing indictment of Palestinian-American activist Rasmea Odeh

October 23, 2013 The below-signed organizations are deeply disturbed by and stand opposed to the indictment yesterday of Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a Palestinian-American community activist who has dedicated 10 years to the Chicago Arab-American community, working with women on issues ranging from promoting literacy and political education to addressing domestic violence and anti-Arab and Muslim sentiment.

Rasmea’s indictment for alleged immigration fraud comes at a time when advocates for Palestinian rights and immigration rights activists have been facing increasing pressure all over the country.  Exactly three years ago, 23 anti-war and Palestinian rights activists were subpoenaed to testify before a Grand Jury, and several of their homes were raided by the FBI.    There have been no indictments against the 23 activists subpoenaed in 2010, presumably because of a lack of evidence. It is no coincidence that federal prosecutors are now targeting Rasmea, who is a pillar in the same community.

The 2010 raids, the Grand Jury subpoenas that accompanied them, and this indictment against a 65 year old woman who suffered for a decade in Israeli prisons before coming to the U.S. in 1995, are a clear signal that federal authorities, along with Israel and its supporters in the U.S., are continuing to search for ways to intimidate and silence those who are effective advocates for Arab American communities, and who speak out for Palestinian rights.

In the last year alone, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and in collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild and other organizations, has documented over 75 cases of intimidation and legal bullying. These include perceived surveillance, FBI contacts, and discriminatory enforcement of laws against advocates for Palestinian rights.  Rasmea’s arrest and indictment must be viewed within this wider context of widespread attempts to intimidate people into silence on one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time.  Rasmea’s indictment is also an illustration of increasingly draconian enforcement of immigration laws, which have left immigrant communities devastated at the hands of Obama’s Department of Homeland Security.

Rasmea is an exemplary citizen who recently finished a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice, and has a law degree from Jordan.  She has overcome amazing odds after being convicted by the Israeli military court system in 1969 for her alleged association with a leftist Palestinian nationalist group that the U.S. designated a terrorist organization.  The military courts operate exclusively to subjugate occupied Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.  They routinely bypass all but a modicum of due process, and justify holding individuals without charge or trial for months and years, often in abusive conditions and subject to torture.  Rasmea’s activism against the Israeli occupation in the 1960s resulted in her imprisonment in Israeli prisons for 10 years, and it is surely her community activism in the U.S. that has made her, and by extension, the community that relies on her, the target of this indictment.

We call for solidarity with Rasmea as she undergoes a difficult legal battle.  Please support Rasmea at her November 13 or 14 appearance in federal court in Detroit, Michigan.  (Please stay tuned for an exact date, which is not yet set.) We are also asking all supporters to call Barbara McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, at 313.226.9501 or 313.226.9100, from 8 AM to 4 PM CST, to demand that she Drop the Charges Now.  For further action items, please see the Arab American Action Network alert. 

SIGNED:

Al-Awda New York, Palestine right to Return Coalition

American Friends Service Committee           

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

American Muslims for Palestine

Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice in the Middle East

AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center

Bay Area Committee to Stop Political Repression (BACSPR)

Bay Area Women in Black

Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights

Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign - Vancouver

Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine

Canada Palestine Association

Center for Constitutional Rights

Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights

College and University Workers United

Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine

Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism 

Council on American-Islamic Relations – Chicago

CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine

Friends of Deir Ibzi'a

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

Hampshire College Students for Justice in Palestine 

International League of People’s Struggles

INCITE! Women and Trans* People of Color Against Violence 

Independent Jewish Voices-Vancouver

Interdenominational Advocates for Peace (IDAP)

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Jadaliyya

JEWS SAY NO!

Jewish Voice for Peace

Jewish Voice for Peace – Bay Area

Jewish Voice for Peace - Chicago 

Jewish Voice for Peace - Detroit

Jewish Voice for Peace -- Philadelphia

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

Justice for Palestinians, San Jose, CA

Labor for Palestine

Legalease Collective, CKUT, Montreal

Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign

Muslim Defense Project of the National Lawyers Guild - New York Chapter

National Lawyers Guild Free Palestine Subcommittee

National Lawyers Guild Chicago

National Students for Justice in Palestine

New York City Labor Against the War

NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

PAWA: Palestinian American Women's Association

Palestine Aid Society 

Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace (PCAP)  

Palestine Solidarity Group - Chicago

Palestine Solidarity Legal Support

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto)

Red Sparks Union – Vancouver

San Francisco Women in Black

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Socialist Action

Solidarity: a socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization

Sunbula: Arab Feminists for Change

The Dream Defenders

Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East

United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

US Palestinian Community Network

WBAI Justice and Unity Campaign 

Women of Colour Collective at the McGill Faculty of Law 

Voice of Palestine