Workers Resistance

Category: Palestine

  • Campaign to ‘Drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh’ grows

    Minneapolis, MN – The struggle against the unjust indictment against veteran Palestinian American activist Rasmea Odeh is rapidly growing. Odeh, a respected leader in Chicago’s Arab and Muslim community, will have an arraignment hearing on a trumped-up immigration charge in Detroit on Nov. 13. She faces up to ten years in prison and deportation. A rally in support of Odeh will take place in front of the Detroit U.S. District Court building (231 W Lafayette Boulevard) at noon on Nov. 13. Mobilizations to attend the rally and hearing are underway in Chicago and Michigan.

    Coinciding with the Detroit hearing and rally, actions in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh will take place across the U.S. Cities planning solidarity actions include Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Oakland and Philadelphia.

    A statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression points out, “The charges against her are a political attack on her as an individual and on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities across the U.S. as a whole. The U.S. government is now carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They are attacking Rasmea as they attacked the Holy Land Foundation, as they attacked the 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists in 2010 and as they attacked Carlos Montes.”

  • SDS: Solidarity with Rasmea Odeh! Drop the charges, NOW!

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Students for a Democratic Society.

    Students for a Democratic Society opposes the indictment of Rasmea Odeh. We recognize this attack as part of the US government’s attempts to silence and repress antiwar activists as well as the Arab community.

    On October 22nd, 2013, 65 year-old Rasmea Odeh was arrested in her home and charged with immigration fraud. The Department of Homeland Security alleges Rasmea did not disclose her arrest by an Israeli military court, which happened over 45 years ago, on her application for US citizenship. She could face up to ten years in prison and the revocation of her citizenship.

    The Israeli government is notorious for violating Palestinians’ human rights. Israelis often deny Palestinians any right to due process including, but not limited to, the right to know one’s charges, the freedom from arbitrary search and arrest, the right to representation in a trial, and the right to a trial by jury. Israeli military courts frequently detain and charge hundreds of Palestinian children per year. With this in mind, it is difficult to imagine that Rasmea received anything resembling a fair trial. After being in Israeli prisons for over 10 years, Rasmea went on to obtain both a law degree as well as a masters degree in criminal justice and continued to work toward a more just world. This year, she received an Outstanding Community Leader award from the Chicago Cultural Alliance for her work with the Arab American Action Network. This includes being a leader on the Arab Women’s Committee and leading the work in areas of civil liberties and immigrant rights. Her determination and dedication to justice should be applauded, not condemned.

    However, the case of Rasmea Odeh is primarily about political repression against Palestinian solidarity activists and community organizers. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor its predecessor, Immigration and Naturalization Services, filed any charges before. It is a fact that Barry Jonas, who prosecuted the Holy Land 5 and is leading the ongoing investigation against the Antiwar 23 (including an SDS member as well as faculty advisors to SDS chapters) who were subpoenaed to a grand jury in 2010, was consulting the US Attorney presenting the indictment against Rasmea Odeh. Clearly, the sudden interest in Odeh is directly related to attempts to target, harass, and imprison those fighting against the ongoing US wars in the Middle East and those showing solidarity with Palestine. The members of SDS will not stand for it.

    Rasmea goes to court on Wednesday, November 13th. SDS unites with the international call for protests this day, and ask that students and youth join protests or hold one of your own on campus or in your communities. The fight to defend activists facing political repression is ultimately the fight to protect us all from political repression.

    If you are able to be in Detroit on Nobember 13th, join the solidarity rally at:

    U.S. District Court
    231 W Lafayette Blvd
    Detroit, MI 48226

    To take further action, we are asking people to do the following:

    1) Sign the petition to drop the charges against Rasmea! http://www.iacenter.org/rasmeaodehpetition/

    2) Call Barbara McQuade (U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan) at 313-226-9501 or 313-226-9100 and demand she drop all charges.

    3) Table, flyer, and plan events on campus in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh.

    4) Send a picture of support for Rasmea. Take a picture of yourself or your group holding a paper or banner saying “I am/we are Students for a Democratic Society and I/we support Rasmea.” Send them to cppr@aaan.org. Just remember that the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) may use your image in future publications and informational pamphlets that get published online or distributed as hard copies.

    5) Sign or write a solidarity statement and send it to stopfbi@gmail.com

    6) Mobilize to support Rasmea at her next hearing in Detroit on November 13th. For more information, email the Coalition to Protect People’s Rights at cppr@aaan.org

  • Palestine solidarity activists confront marketers of illegal settlement product SodaStream

    Milwaukee, WI – On Nov. 5, the self-proclaimed “fastest growing motivational movement,” #besomebody, met the world’s fastest growing boycott movement on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

    Over 20 activists handed out informational fliers exposing the connection between SodaStream and the #besomebody “movement” which markets SodaStream’s in-home soda machines. Activists educated fellow students on SodaStream’s human rights abuses which include operating on an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank of Palestine.

    Members of two Students for Justice in Palestine chapters held signs that read, “Don’t drink SodaStream. Support Palestinian human rights. #besomebody against occupation.”During the action, activists from the Milwaukee Palestine Solidarity Coalition and Friends of Palestine met with #besomebody’s founder, Kash Shaikh, and urged him to cut ties with companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine. Before a large group of activists Shaikh admitted, “I didn’t do a very good job looking into their background,” referring to SodaStream, and said he was personally opposed to the occupation.

    Actions and local campaigns against companies that sell SodaStream have been springing up over the last year as it becomes one of the primary focuses of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. A national week of action against SodaStream will coincide with ‘Black Friday’ later this month, focused on the retailer Target, demanding they withdraw the product and break ties with the Israeli occupation.

  • Protests to demand: Drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh now!

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. We urge all our readers to support this effort.

    U.S. Attorney sets arraignment date for Rasmea Odeh, Nov. 13

    Demand: Drop the charges on Rasmea Odeh now!

    Local protests across the country at Federal Buildings. Join us in Detroit

    Palestinian community activist Rasmea Yousef Odeh will be arraigned in the U.S. District Court, 231 W Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan on Wednesday, November 13th at 1:30 p.m. We will gather at the court building at 12:30.

    Rasmea was arrested Tuesday, October 22nd, at her home in Chicago by agents of the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and ICE. She is charged with immigration fraud. Allegedly, in her application for citizenship, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago and tried in an Israeli military court that does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process. She is now facing being stripped of U.S. citizenship, a prison term of ten years and probably, after prison, deportation.

    Rasmea is the associate director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), one of the oldest institutions in the Arab community in Chicago. She leads a women’s committee with 600 Arab and Muslim women and she is also a leader in the immigrant rights movement in Chicago.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression calls for supporters of Rasmea to pack the courtroom in Detroit. The charges against her are a political attack on her as an individual and on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities across the U.S. as a whole. The U.S. government is now carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They are attacking Rasmieh as they attacked the Holy Land Foundation, as they attacked the 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists in 2010 and as they attacked Carlos Montes.

    If you can be in Detroit, join us there.

    If you can’t be in Detroit, hold local protests, vigils, banner drops, or other actions on November 13 to show support for Rasmea as she faces this persecution.

  • Protests to demand: Drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh now!

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. We urge all our readers to support this effort.

    U.S. Attorney sets arraignment date for Rasmea Odeh, Nov. 13

    Demand: Drop the charges on Rasmea Odeh now!

    Local protests across the country at Federal Buildings. Join us in Detroit

    Palestinian community activist Rasmea Yousef Odeh will be arraigned in the U.S. District Court, 231 W Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan on Wednesday, November 13th at 1:30 p.m. We will gather at the court building at 12:30.

    Rasmea was arrested Tuesday, October 22nd, at her home in Chicago by agents of the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and ICE. She is charged with immigration fraud. Allegedly, in her application for citizenship, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago and tried in an Israeli military court that does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process. She is now facing being stripped of U.S. citizenship, a prison term of ten years and probably, after prison, deportation.

    Rasmea is the associate director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), one of the oldest institutions in the Arab community in Chicago. She leads a women’s committee with 600 Arab and Muslim women and she is also a leader in the immigrant rights movement in Chicago.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression calls for supporters of Rasmea to pack the courtroom in Detroit. The charges against her are a political attack on her as an individual and on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities across the U.S. as a whole. The U.S. government is now carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They are attacking Rasmieh as they attacked the Holy Land Foundation, as they attacked the 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists in 2010 and as they attacked Carlos Montes.

    If you can be in Detroit, join us there.

    If you can’t be in Detroit, hold local protests, vigils, banner drops, or other actions on November 13 to show support for Rasmea as she faces this persecution.

  • Protests to demand: Drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh now!

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. We urge all our readers to support this effort.

    U.S. Attorney sets arraignment date for Rasmea Odeh, Nov. 13

    Demand: Drop the charges on Rasmea Odeh now!

    Local protests across the country at Federal Buildings. Join us in Detroit

    Palestinian community activist Rasmea Yousef Odeh will be arraigned in the U.S. District Court, 231 W Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan on Wednesday, November 13th at 1:30 p.m. We will gather at the court building at 12:30.

    Rasmea was arrested Tuesday, October 22nd, at her home in Chicago by agents of the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and ICE. She is charged with immigration fraud. Allegedly, in her application for citizenship, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago and tried in an Israeli military court that does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process. She is now facing being stripped of U.S. citizenship, a prison term of ten years and probably, after prison, deportation.

    Rasmea is the associate director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), one of the oldest institutions in the Arab community in Chicago. She leads a women’s committee with 600 Arab and Muslim women and she is also a leader in the immigrant rights movement in Chicago.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression calls for supporters of Rasmea to pack the courtroom in Detroit. The charges against her are a political attack on her as an individual and on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities across the U.S. as a whole. The U.S. government is now carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They are attacking Rasmieh as they attacked the Holy Land Foundation, as they attacked the 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists in 2010 and as they attacked Carlos Montes.

    If you can be in Detroit, join us there.

    If you can’t be in Detroit, hold local protests, vigils, banner drops, or other actions on November 13 to show support for Rasmea as she faces this persecution.

  • Petition effort in support of Rasmea Odeh under way

    Chicago, IL – A massive online petition effort demanding that the government drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh was launched Nov. 2. Odeh, a longtime Palestinian community leader war arrested by Homeland Security on Oct. 22.

    Hundreds of people signed the petition in the first few hours since it was posted.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is going all out to defend Odeh. StopFBI.net is an excellent source of information for developments in her case.

    The petition appears below.

    Drop the Charges against Rasmea Yousef Odeh

    Sign the petition here: http://www.iacenter.org/rasmeaodehpetition/

    Signing the petition will generate a direct email to:

    — U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade

    — Assistant U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois Barry Jonas

    — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

    and other public officials demanding that the charges against Rasmea Odeh be dropped.

    Full petition text

    We, the undersigned, demand that U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade stop the indictment of Rasmea Yousef Odeh and drop all federal charges.

    Sixty-six year old Rasmea Odeh is a Palestinian-American feminist, activist, educator and community leader. She has served as the associate director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) in Chicago since 2004. For the past 10 years, Rasmea has built unprecedented community support for close to 600 Arab immigrant women on issues related to English literacy, gender violence, inter-generational cultural conflicts, racial profiling, immigrant rights, and access to social and economic resources. She has established community-wide education projects related to civil and human rights, social justice, and community economic development and workshops that allow Arab immigrant women to tell, write, and perform their immigration stories while improving their writing skills. In 2013, Rasmea received the “Outstanding Community Leader Award” from the Chicago Cultural Alliance, which described her as a woman who has “dedicated over 40 years of her life to the empowerment of Arab women, first in her homes of Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon, where she was an activist, and then the past 10 years in Chicago.”

    On October 22, the Department of Homeland Security arrested Rasmea in her home for alleged immigration fraud as part of an ongoing witch-hunt that targets Arabs and Muslims who criticize U.S. and Israeli policy and labels them “terrorists.”

    Rasmea has been demanding justice for Palestinians for most of her life. Like the experience of approximately 20% of the total Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza, she spent time as a political prisoner in Israeli jails in the 1970’s. There, she was violently tortured and humiliated– despite the international legal prohibition on torture and ill-treatment.

    Like their Israeli ally, the U.S. federal government has a history of targeting individuals who express public support for Palestine and over and over, Palestinian and Arab American activists are disproportionately targeted in such cases. According to the Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, their organization, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Palestine Solidarity Legal Support (PSLC) in collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild and other organizations, “has documented over 75 cases of intimidation and legal bullying in 2013 alone. These include perceived surveillance, FBI contacts, and discriminatory enforcement of laws against advocates for Palestinian rights.” Now decades in the making, this U.S. government strategy targets Palestinian immigrants, Palestinian Americans, and their supporters in order to quell any and all support for Palestinian rights in the U.S. and globally. According to CCR and PSLC, it is no coincidence that federal prosecutors are now targeting Rasmea, who is a pillar in the same community where 23 anti-war and Palestinian rights activists, many who’s homes were raided by the FBI, were subpoenaed to testify before a Grand Jury in 2010. There have been no indictments against the 23 activists subpoenaed presumably because of a lack of evidence.

    The U.S. government’s portrayal of Palestinians as violent and inhuman fuels the case against Rasmea and as a result, the U.S. mainstream betrays Palestinians like Rasmea, leaving them with little support. The corporate media makes matters worse. By telling the story of Rasmea’s past as though she was a possible terrorist legitimately and legally arrested by the Israeli government, the media covers up that Israel occupies Palestinian land and arrests and tortures Palestinians systematically and illegally. The sensationalized media portrayal of Rasmea’s “terrorist past” dehumanizes Rasmea and justifies the ongoing state violence committed against her and the larger Arab American and Arab immigrant communities.

    We stand in solidarity with Rasmea Yousef Odeh!

    We demand the charges placed on Rasmea Yousef Odeh to be dropped immediately!

  • Protest demands: “Drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh”

    Chicago, IL – About 50 people protested here, Oct. 24, to oppose Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and also to call for the U.S. government to drop charges against local Palestinian activist, Rasmea Odeh. The demonstration took place outside the Chicago Hilton where a fundraising event for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was held.

    Odeh was arrested at her home the morning of Oct. 22 by agents of the Department of Homeland Security on allegations of an immigration violation.

    According to Hatem Abudayyeh of U.S. Palestinian Community Network-Chicago, “The IDF enforces Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza. Now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are enforcers of that illegal occupation as well.” He added, “We will raise our voices to oppose this fundraiser and to show our support for Rasmea Odeh. Her voice and ours won’t be silenced.”

    Odeh is a well-known activist in the Palestinian community and is a symbol of the enduring spirit of the Palestinians in the face of years of oppression at the hands of the Israeli occupation.

    The protest was sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, American Muslims for Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network-Chicago, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Anti-War Committee-Chicago, Code Pink-Chicago and the ANSWER Coalition-Chicago.

  • Drop the Charges against Rasmea Odeh

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 23 statement from the Arab American Action Network. We urge all our readers to participate in the national call in day.

    Statement from the Arab American Action Network

    The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) condemns the politically-motivated arrest and indictment of Rasmea Yousef Odeh, our beloved Associate Director. The sixty-five year old was arrested at her home yesterday by agents from the Department of Homeland Security, alleging an immigration violation on a 20-year-old application. Rasmea, who has made it her life’s work to serve and help empower Palestinian and Arab families, is the victim of another witch-hunt by our federal law enforcement agencies, which continue to violate the civil rights of Arabs and Muslims with impunity, particularly those who are critical of U.S. support for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.

    Rasmea is a leading member of Chicago’s Arab and Muslim communities, and her decade of service here has changed the lives of thousands of people, particularly disenfranchised Arab women and their families. She has been with the AAAN since 2004, and as Associate Director, is responsible for the management of day-to-day operations and the coordination of our Arab Women’s Committee, which has a membership of close to 600 and leads our work in the areas of defending civil liberties and immigrant rights. She is a mentor to hundreds of immigrant women, as well as many members of our staff and board, and is a well-known and respected organizer throughout Chicagoland, the U.S., and the world.

    Earlier this year, Rasmea received the “Outstanding Community Leader Award” from the Chicago Cultural Alliance, which described her as a woman who has “dedicated over 40 years of her life to the empowerment of Arab women, first in her homes of Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon, where she was an activist and practicing attorney, and then the past 10 years in Chicago.”

    Rasmea is a community icon who recently completed a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Governors State University. She overcame vicious torture by Israeli authorities while imprisoned in Palestine in the 70s, and is a proud reminder of the millions of Palestinians who have not given up organizing for their rights of liberation, equality, and return.

    It is appalling that our government is now attempting to imprison her once again. We condemn this attack on our friend and colleague Rasmea, as well as the broader pattern of persecuting Arabs and Muslims who are outstanding and outspoken leaders in their communities in the U.S.

    We ask all of our supporters to call Barbara McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, at 313.226.9501 or 313.226.9100, on Friday, October 25th, from 8 AM to 4 PM CST, to demand that she Drop the Charges Now!

    We will also be mobilizing to support Rasmea at her next hearing in Detroit on November 1st. Details coming soon.

    And for more information, email the Coalition to Protect People’s Rights at cppr@aaan.org

  • PFLP: Boycott occupation elections in Jerusalem

    Fight back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 12 statement from the Popular Font for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

    The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for a boycott of the occupation municipal elections in the city of Jerusalem. The Front called on our people in the city of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Palestinian people, to boycott these occupation elections which are part of the policy of Judaizing Jerusalem in various fields. This includes undermining the Arab status of Jerusalem and the political, spiritual, cultural, economic and social development of our people, and repression of the people of the city of Jerusalem.

    The Front said that the occupation authorities in Jerusalem are pushing demographic and geographic changes through rampant settlement, home demolitions, economic strangulation, ethnic cleansing and compromising of sacred Islamic and Christian holy sites. These acts are invalid and contrary to historical facts and international law, and are part of the war crimes being waged against the Palestinian people, their land, holy sites and inalienable rights to return, self-determination and sovereignty.