Rasmieh Odeh ordered to be deported, pay $1,000 for immigration conviction

posted on: Aug 18, 2017

A federal judge in Detroit today ordered former Michigan resident Rasmieh Odeh to pay a $1,000 fine and be deported to Jordan for lying on immigration and naturalization forms in connection with a bombing in Israel in 1969 that killed two people.

Odeh, 70, of Chicago, had agreed to a plea deal earlier this year that allows her to avoid any prison time. In his sentence, Judge Gershwin Drain also gave Odeh credit for the 33 days she already had served in jail after a jury had found her guilty in 2014.

Judge Drain sentenced Odeh after she blasted Israel in remarks toward the court, saying she’s not a terrorist. Judge Drain cut her off a few times, warning her to stop talking about the Arab-Israeli dispute or else he would hold her in contempt of court and possibly lock her up.

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Her case has drawn national attention, with opponents and supporters of Israel taking differing views. Odeh was one of eight women who signed an open call in the Guardian, a British newspaper, calling for the “A Day Without A Woman” protests in March. Odeh used to live in Jackson, where her late father once ran a restaurant.

Odeh was not charged with terrorism in U.S. courts, only with immigration fraud for lying on government forms that ask immigrants if they have ever been convicted of a crime.

Addressing the court, Odeh repeatedly slammed Israel, saying that they have terrorized Palestinians.

“They turned us into strangers in our own country and pushed us into the inhumane conditions of refugee camps,” she said. “The Zionists committed massacres.”

Judge Drain told her this was not the place to talk about the Israeli-Arab conflict.

“You were not guilty of being a terrorist,” he told her. “This history really doesn’t have any bearing on the sentence. … This is not really a political forum to fan the flames of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.”

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Drain said he found it “extremely difficult” to believe Odeh’s excuse that PTSD caused her not to remember her Israeli convictions when she answered “no” on immigration forms asking if she had ever been convicted of a crime.

Odeh denies she was involved in the 1969 bombing which she was later convicted of in Israel. She said Israel tortured her into confessing, which caused PTSD.

Judge Drain said that while Odeh is “a very educated, intelligent” person who has helped many immigrants in Chicago, she committed a serious offense in lying on immigration forms.

 “No doubt you did a lot of good work, but still, you were untruthful and dishonest about your statements you made in your history, in those applications. I don’t want to minimize the seriousness.”

“Here in America, with our immigration system, we rely on the truthfulness and honesty of people,” Drain said. “When they are applying to come here, we expect them to be honest, and you weren’t. It’s a serious offense.”

A farewell for Odeh was held Saturday in Chicago that included activist Angela Davis, said supporters.

Prosecutors have said Odeh lied about her convictions in the 1969 Israel bombing at a supermarket.

Odeh left Jordan for the U.S. in 1995, first living in Michigan. She became a U.S. citizen in 2004 and was charged by prosecutors in 2013 in a case tied to raids involving anti-war activists.

Odeh was found guilty by a jury in 2014 in Detroit and then sentenced to 18 months in prison. She served five weeks behind bars, but the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her conviction and sent the case back to Detroit.

Odeh was associate director of the Arab American Action Network in Chicago, part of the Dearborn-based National Network for Arab American Communities, a project of ACCESS, a social services group in Dearborn formerly known as the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.

Odeh has drawn support from a range of Arab-American and leftist groups, and opposition from pro-Israel advocates.

In a statement, the attorney for the victims of the 1969 bombing in Israel, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, praised the deportation sentence of Odeh.

“Hopefully, this will be the final chapter in the tragic story of this still dangerous and unrepentant PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) terrorist who tried to defraud the US immigration services,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder of the Israel Law Center, which represents the families of the victims.

Rallies for Odeh were held today outside the Detroit federal courthouse. Inside, about 85 supporters of Odeh packed the courtroom and an overflow room, said a court official.

In her statement before Judge Drain, Odeh said: “I am raising my voice on behalf of myself as a Palestinian woman, and on behalf of all Palestinian people…across the world.”

Odeh said she “was born into a family” that desired “to live in peace and tranquility far away from bombs, explosions, murder…but those dreams turned into a nightmare at the hands of the terrorist, Irgun,” referring to an Israeli militia group from the 1930s and 1940s.

Her attorney, Michael Deutsch, said “this is the kind of case that should never have been brought.”

He said Odeh is “beloved” by the community she serves, but conceded “she didn’t tell the full history of her interactions with the Israel government in answering her naturalization questions.”

 “They wanted to make this case into a terrorism case,” he said. “In this climate and this situation, we felt this was the result that was in her best interests.”

After the sentencing, Odeh spoke to supporters outside the courthouse.

 “We will liberate our Palestine, all Palestine,” Odeh said to cheers.

Staff photographer Mandi Wright contributed to this report.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-223-4792. Follow him on Twitter @nwarikoo