Workers Resistance

Category: Political Repression

  • 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.

  • Outrageous arrest of Palestinian activist in Chicago

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following important statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR). We urge all of our readers to share this statement as broadly as possible.

    Outrageous arrest in Chicago
    Stop the repression of Palestinian activists

    A Palestinian woman, Rasmieh Odeh, was arrested at her home this morning, Oct. 22, by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

    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 by an Israeli military court that detains Palestinians without charge – a court that has over 200 children in prison today and does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process.

    The arrest today appears to be related to the case of the 23 anti-war activists subpoenaed to a grand jury in 2010. Well-known labor, community and international solidarity activists around the Midwest had their homes raided by the FBI when the U.S. attorney alleged that they had provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations in Palestine and Colombia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is leading the investigation against the 23. He was at the courtroom in Chicago this morning, consulting with the assistant U.S. attorney who was presenting the indictment to the judge. Jonas was also the prosecutor in the case of the Holy Land Five, the heads of the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before 9/11. He was successful in getting prison sentences for as long as 65 years for the five men, who provided charity to children in Gaza.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) denounces this attack as another example of the continuing repression of Palestinians and people who stand in solidarity with them. Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office now are carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    Odeh will appear in court in Detroit on Nov. 1, where she will be represented by Jim Fennerty of the National Lawyers Guild. CSFR urges people to attend the proceedings at the Federal Court in Detroit in her defense.

    Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)
    http://www.stopfbi.net/

  • Outrageous arrest of Palestinian activist in Chicago

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following important statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR). We urge all of our readers to share this statement as broadly as possible.

    Outrageous arrest in Chicago
    Stop the repression of Palestinian activists

    A Palestinian woman, Rasmieh Odeh, was arrested at her home this morning, Oct. 22, by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

    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 by an Israeli military court that detains Palestinians without charge – a court that has over 200 children in prison today and does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process.

    The arrest today appears to be related to the case of the 23 anti-war activists subpoenaed to a grand jury in 2010. Well-known labor, community and international solidarity activists around the Midwest had their homes raided by the FBI when the U.S. attorney alleged that they had provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations in Palestine and Colombia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is leading the investigation against the 23. He was at the courtroom in Chicago this morning, consulting with the assistant U.S. attorney who was presenting the indictment to the judge. Jonas was also the prosecutor in the case of the Holy Land Five, the heads of the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before 9/11. He was successful in getting prison sentences for as long as 65 years for the five men, who provided charity to children in Gaza.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) denounces this attack as another example of the continuing repression of Palestinians and people who stand in solidarity with them. Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office now are carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    Odeh will appear in court in Detroit on Nov. 1, where she will be represented by Jim Fennerty of the National Lawyers Guild. CSFR urges people to attend the proceedings at the Federal Court in Detroit in her defense.

    Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)
    http://www.stopfbi.net/

  • Minneapolis pushes back against FBI repression of anti-war activists

    Minneapolis, MN – About 100 people joined a protest here, Sept. 24, at the Federal Building, to demand an end to the three year federal investigation of anti-war and international solidarity activists that began with FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas on Sept. 24, 2010.

    A delegation from the Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression delivered a letter, signed by academics, trade union leaders and other progressives to the U.S Attorneys office inside the federal building. The letter demanded an end to in investigation.

    The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office is alleging “material support for terrorism.”

    Jess Sundin, a prominent anti-war leader whose home was raided by the FBI, told the crowd, “Three years ago, they busted through our front doors, armed with battering rams, search warrants and grand jury subpoenas and they turned our lives upside-down. Treating us like terrorists and the entire anti-war movement like some kind of criminal enterprise, the government set out to silence all of us and clear the way for war. Thanks to 23 grand jury resisters and thousands of supporters they failed. We are walking around free, speaking out against the agenda of war for empire and standing united against political repression.”

    Sundin also stated, “I never imagined that I would live for three years under a cloud of suspicion, as a subject of an endlessly ongoing investigation. In its latest statement, the U.S. attorney’s office says, ‘there are no public criminal cases stemming from the investigation.’ It seems clear enough that criminal indictments might already be there, under seal, just waiting for the right political moment to bring them out. We are here today to show that there will never be an easy time to take us, that our friends in the people’s movements will never stand by quietly while we are locked away like criminals for opposing the crimes of U.S. wars.”

    Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee stated, “While our government kills poor and working people in other countries and calls that justice, we call it terrorism. While the activist community stands up and brings home about what our government is doing to the poor and working people in other countries our government wants to call that terrorism. The government had tried to silence our movement but we did not allow that to happen. We stood up and fought back and resisted. We at the Welfare Rights Committee will continue to stand and support our sisters and brothers who were targeted by the FBI.”

  • Minneapolis protest set to demand end to federal investigation of anti-war activists

    Minneapolis, MN – Anti-war and civil liberties activists are set to protest Sep. 24, at the Minneapolis Federal Building, at 4:30 pm. They will be demanding an end to the three-year investigation of anti-war and international solidarity activists that began with FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas on September 24, 2010.

    Jess Sundin, one of the raided activists, said, “In the most recent public comment, in response to a media inquiry, the U.S. attorney’s office gave a strangely-worded response: ‘there are no public criminal cases stemming from the investigation.’ Perhaps this is suggesting that there may already be criminal indictments under seal or maybe not. We and our kids need this investigation into our protected political activity and speech to be over.”

    Sundin added, “Recent revelations by Edward Snowden – and the ACLU reports on fusion centers – show that there is a pervasive attitude amongst government that people are the enemy and that opposing government policies is a ‘security threat.’”

    A letter with 200-plus signers will be delivered to the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s office urging that the U.S. Attorney publicly put an end to the investigation.

    Sundin concluded, “This year, on the three-year anniversary and on the eve of a new war, we recommit ourselves to building the people’s movements. We demonstrate their complete failure in silencing activism, opposition to war and international solidarity. We will continue to do that work and to continue to build solidarity with other victims of political repression.”

  • Civil liberties group condemns Bradley Manning sentence

    Grand Rapids, MI – Tom Burke, a spokesperson for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression,condemned the 35-year sentence that was handed down against whistleblower Bradley Manning.

    Burke stated, “Bradley Manning’s sentence of 35 years is harsh and unjustified. Manning exposed war crimes committed by U.S. soldiers and covered up by the top ranks of the Pentagon, State Department and White House. There are U.S. war criminals who belong on trial and in prison cells instead of those like Manning who expose the actual crimes. The U.S. government is becoming more and more repressive, spending money on war, prisons and repression, while the rich get away with ruining the lives of working people at home and abroad. “

    Burke was one of the anti-war and international solidarity activists targeted in a Department of Justice investigation of “material support for terrorism.”