Palestinian who lied about terror conviction deported to Jordan
Following a four-year legal battle Rasmea Odeh, 70, forced to leave the United States
A Palestinian woman who lied about her involvement in terrorist attacks in Israel to obtain U.S. citizenship boarded a plane to Jordan, her home country.
The deportation of Rasmea Odeh, 70, was ordered last month by a U.S. federal court in Detroit after a four-year legal battle.
Dozens of Odeh’s supporters gathered at O’Hare Airport in Chicago on Tuesday evening waving signs bearing her picture and words of support, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The supporters, including family and friends, held a two-hour rally outside the airport surrounded by police and federal marshals but were not permitted to enter the airport with Odeh.
Odeh, a Chicago-area resident who served as associate director at the Arab American Action Network, reportedly cried as she entered the airport.
“Up until this very moment, I didn’t believe they will throw me out of the place I’ve spent over 23 years, separate me from the people whom I love and they love me,” she told the Sun-Times. “How can I express how I am feeling? I don’t want to understand that this is my last day in the U.S. I don’t want to believe that.”
Odeh told the newspaper that she does not have family left in her home country of Jordan, and that it was not her choice of destination. She is barred for life from re-entering the Unites States.
Odeh spent 10 years in an Israeli prison for her role in a 1969 bombing attack at a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two Hebrew University students, Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe.
Israel jailed Odeh for life, but she was released in a prisoner exchange with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1980 and immigrated to the United States from Jordan. She has said her confession to the bombing was the result of severe torture by Israeli security forces.
Odeh obtained her U.S. immigrant visa in 1994 and her citizenship in 2004. In both applications, she failed to disclose her arrest and convictions in the bombings. She pleaded guilty to falsifying her immigration applications.
According to a plea agreement Odeh signed, she admitted that she lied about her criminal history.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
