A prominent Chicago activist has lost her U.S. citizenship and will be deported after failing to disclose her convictions for bombings in Jerusalem years ago.
U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain told Rasmea Odeh during her court appearance in Detroit, which she used to criticize the United States and Israel, “This is not a political forum for you to fan the flames of Israeli-Palestinian disputes,” The Associated Press reported, “It’s about the application you filled out.”
The 70-year-old activist, who is known for helping Arab women around the Chicago area, pleaded guilty in April for concealing her previous convictions. Her case became a political flashpoint when she joined the anti-President Donald Trump Women’s March and later helped organize the Day Without Women strike.
He “praised [Odeh] for her years of service to Palestinian women in the Chicago area. But he [said] the immigration system relies on honesty,” as AP reported.
Drain said she should get no prison time, and now, Odeh will wait for the federal government to deport her—likely to Jordan.
In 1970, she was convicted of two bombings, including one that killed two at a supermarket in Jerusalem.
But Odeh has said that she was tortured into confessing. She claims she was tried in a military court and was sexually assault by interrogators.
She was released in 1979 as part of a swap with the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine.
