NWO To Rasmea Odeh: You Will Not Mention Israelis Tortured, Raped You To Force Terror Confessions!

Rasmea Odea, Israeli torture survivor and beloved human rights leader of Chicago’s Palestinian community, saw her supporters pack a Detroit courtroom Thursday for continuing testimonies and cross examinations of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the judge’s continuing to strike any reference to Israelis brutally torturing her to force a confession about a terror plot.

American Suppression of Social Justice Activists

Torture is excellent for forcing false confessions so the elite can perescute innocent people, a powerful tool for political repression by both Israeli’s and American military personnel and contractors.

The big question is whether Rasmea will be sentenced to prison to silence her human rights leadership of Palestinians in Chicago and her further accounts of being tortured by Israelis.  So far, the judge has demonstrated being pro-Israel at all costs, including the cost of Rasmea’s freedom.

Throngs of people have gathered in Detroit and in other places across the country to protest the inhumane treatment, the revictimization of Rasmea, a rape, torture and refugee survivor of Israeli brutality.

Rasmea’s supporters outside the courthouse on Thursday chanted: “DOJ [Department of Justice], let’s be clear, Rasmea is welcome here!”

Florida anti-war activists protested outside the Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse on earlier this week to demand justice for the Palestinian American activist Rasmea Odeh and the sentencing of Tampa Bay native Sami Osmakac, an Albanian American and Muslim found guilty in an FBI entrapment case. Salt Lake City, Utah anti-war activists gathered in front of the William F Bennet Federal Building to stand in solidarity with Rasmea.

Angela Davis has stated that Rasmea’s case continues the “history of decades of suppression of social justice activists.”

US District Judge Gershwin Drain barred Rasmea from using post-traumatic stress disorder as a defense, although he said he believes her claim that she was tortured by the Israeli military.

The case has angered pro-Palestinian activists who accuse the US government of trying to silence critics of Israel.

Thursday, under cross by defense attorney Jim Fennerty, USCIS agent Douglas Scott Pierce revealed a previous case in which he’d testified, saying naturalization form questions can be “confusing,” especially for those not fluent in English. He acknowledged that older forms asked specifically about crimes, arrests, imprisonment, etc., “inside or outside the United States.” Today’s forms are less clear.

That set the stage for 66 year-old Rasmea Odea’s argument that she’d always believed questions she’s been accused of answering falsely were asking about her time in the U.S., not Palestine. Jennifer Williams, the immigration officer who interviewed Rasmea back in 2004, testified, along with a fingerprint expert. The prosecution then rested its case.

Lead defense attorney Michael Deutsch called as his first witness University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) professor Nadine Naber, a leading scholar on Arab women and other women of color, who first met Rasmea back in 2006. Naber testified to their work together, describing Rasmea’s organizing resulting in changing the lives of hundreds of Arab immigrant women by creating a space for them to face their collective challenges they experience. She testified about Rasmea’s character, a truthful person and community mentor.

Nadine Naber

Judge Drain then excused the jury to advise Rasmsea and Deutsch on his previous rulings, reinforcing his restrictions on her upcoming testimony. He asserted she would not be allowed to speak about her Israeli torture experience, stating he did not want to “retry the case” of 1969.

“It’s my life. I have a right to talk about the things that happened to me!” Rasmea responded.

Judge Drain refused to accede, restating that testimony referring to torture or her forced confession was inadmissible, and that if she violated his orders, there would be consequences. Rasmea nevertheless delivered a heartfelt testimony, leaving the entire courtroom and the overflow courtroom where dozens more were seated, in tears, according to the United States Palestinian Community News.

She recounted her life story filled with tragedy and resilience, beginning with the Nakba, the ‘Catastrophe,’ what Palestinians call the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 when 750,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes. She and her family were among those who lost their land and home, forced to live as refugees in a tent before making their way to Ramallah, where they lived during the 1967 Israeli war and occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Rasmea told the jury about the Israeli raid on her home in 1969, when she, along with her father and sisters, were arrested. That was when Israel swept up and arrested over 500 Palestinians. She broke down in tears recalling how that night traumatized her sister to the point of early death.

Although barred from testifying about Israelis torturing her, Ramea told the court that she spent 45 days in an “interrogation” center. Prosecutor Jonathan Tukel objected. Judge Drain sustained the objection and reprimanded her. Deutsch then asked her if she was convicted.

“They convicted me falsely,” she responded.

Again, the government objected and the judge sustained the objection.

“Did you try to escape?” Deutsch later asked her, in reference to one of Israel’s charges that the government has highlighted in this case.

“Of course, any political prisoner [would] try to escape!” Rasmea reponded.

Supporters in the overflow courtroom applauded her answer. The main courtroom, however, heard another objection from Tukel and the he judge once again siding with the government. The political prisoner reference was struck from the record.

Rasmea described immigrating to the United States to care for her ailing father. When asked about the 1994 application for permanent residency filed in Jordan, she explained all answers on that form came from her brother. From the U.S., he had sent her a sample form, and she was to copy what he had written on the sample.

“I couldn’t read [English], and I trust my brother. I didn’t read anything, I just copied [what] my brother said,” she testified.

When Deutsch asked about her 2004 application for naturalization, and why she responded “No” to questions about whether she’d been arrested, convicted or imprisoned, she explained that those questions followed directly three previous ones explicitly about the U.S.

“When I continued, my understanding was [that these questions were also] about the U.S., so I continued to say no.”

Deutsch later asked what she’d have done had she understood the questions were intended to address imprisonment outside the U.S. as well.

“If I knew it was about Israel, I would have said…” she responded. “It’s not a secret that I’ve been in jail. Even the embassy knows.”

The U.S. embassy in Israel became involved in the initial arrests because her father was a U.S. citizen.

Rasmea was continued testifying today. After cross-examination by the government, both sides will make their closing arguments.

The jury is not expected to begin deliberation until Monday, the earliest a verdict is expected.

Some 70 supporters in the courtrooms Thursday, inspired by Rasmea’s incredible testimony, rearranged their plans to stay through Monday.

In Detroit, organizers were scrambling to ensure housing and transportation for people extending their stay and to prepare for more people arriving daily to join the fight for human rights and justice for Rasmea.

“These bankers, bosses, and investors always need more,” Gregory Lucero of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization in Salt Lake City said at the protest there. “These vampires will try and sink their fangs where ever they can, from Colombia to Palestine.”

The people’s resistance in these places made it difficult for the system to continue, according to Lucero, adding that people in the U.S. are growing tired of this system. The U.S. government response is to increase political repression.

“They’re scared that people are rising up, so they’re trying to use political repression to keep us scared, but we’re not going to take it.”

Lucero closed the Utah rally by leading the crowd in chanting, “When Rasmea Odeh is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Sources: The Guardian, US Palestinian Community News

Image: USPC News