Israel Matzav

A terrorist and a liar

The pro-Odeh narrative runs something like this: Odeh was just a political activist prior to Israeli arrest, picked up as part of a mass arrest of 500 or more people with no evidence of involvement in terror. Odeh gave a false confession after 25 days of horrific sexual torture, including gang rape, being forced to watch another prisoner tortured to death, and failed attempts to coerce her father into raping her. Odeh was denied the ability to defend herself, was denied access to counsel in the Israeli military court, and did not receive a fair trial.

That narrative does not hold up based on the record.

The demonstrable facts show that:

■ Prior to her arrest in Israel, Odeh was a military participant in and organizer for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

■ Odeh confessed in a highly detailed account just one day after arrest. The timetable of her confession is inconsistent with the multi-week torture narrative. Other co-conspirators also quickly confessed; one of whom directly implicated Odeh as the mastermind in a 2004 film documentary.

■ After arrest Odeh was allowed to and did defend herself in the Israeli military court, where she was represented by counsel. Israel called witnesses to rebut the torture allegations.

■ An observer from the International Red Cross was present for the entire six-month Israeli trial, and stated afterward that the Israeli military court "had given the accused every chance of defending themselves, and the trial was – in his opinion – a fair trial."

...

The only victims in the Rasmea Odeh story are the two Hebrew University students killed in the 1969 supermarket bombing.

Labels: Chicago, Detroit, illegal immigration, offensive Palestinians, Palestinian terrorism, Palestinians

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:04 AM