... “It would be ideal if I could sit in your living room and tell you the history of Rasmea Odeh,” Deutsch said. “Rasmea Odeh embodies the history of the Palestinian people: a story of great suffering and great resilience.” Deutsch briefly told the jurors that Odeh had lost her home twice in the span of less than twenty years to Zionist forces; that her father immigrated to Detroit, where he worked in a factory until he was seriously injured; and that she was arrested in 1969, in a massive arrest campaign by the Israeli army, during which over 500 other Palestinians were swept up. Lisa Hajjar, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the author of the only book-length scholarship on the Israeli military court system, had been a potential expert witness for the defense and had submitted an affidavit to the court that stated that as early as 1969 the Israeli military had begun to employ “militarized violence and collective punishment” across the Palestinian territories, ushering in an expansive use of the military court system to counter Palestinian resistance to the occupation. However, Hajjar will not be allowed to testify, and Deutsch told The Electronic Intifada that he will not be able to go into any further details of that arrest campaign during the trial. When Deutsch began to suggest to the jury the “extent” of the interrogation Rasmea Odeh endured, the prosecution objected. The judge upheld the objection. ...
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 17:42:02 +0000
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