Convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was sentenced to life in prison for alleged involvement in a 1969 supermarket terrorist bombing in Israel in which two civilians were murdered, will be featured as one of the speakers at the Jewish Voices for Peace National Members Meeting and conference on March 31-April 2 in Chicago, Illinois.
Despite it’s name, Jewish Voices for Peace has been recognized as an anti-Israel organization that engages in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting the Jewish state.
Members of the local Jewish community have urged the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, located in Downtown Chicago, to cancel the conference where Odeh is slated to deliver a keynote speech. Anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour is also scheduled to speak at the same conference.
Breitbart News reached out to the Hyatt Regency at least three times for comment on the event featuring Odeh. However, they failed to respond to the inquiries.
The hotel did respond to several concerned individuals on Twitter: “We don’t always agree with guests’ views & don’t unlawfully discriminate against groups who hold lawful meetings at the hotel.” The same generic message was sent to at least 4 Twitter users.
“The fact they’re bringing in a twice-convicted terrorist in Israel and in the States confessed murderer is outrageous, but not surprising,” Jay Tcath, executive vice president of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, told the Washington Free Beacon.
In 1969, Odeh and another female Palestinian accomplice were charged with planting bombs inside the crowded Supersol grocery store in Downtown Jerusalem. Leon Kaner, 21 of Netanya, and Edward Joffe, 22, or Kiron died. Eight others were wounded.
The deadly terrorist attack was one of the first carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). After completing just 10 years of her life sentence, Odeh was released during a prisoner swap in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier and emigrated to the United States several years later through Jordan.
However, she allegedly lied to immigration officials about her past when she applied for residency and citizenship and was accused of living in the United States under false pretenses for nearly 20 years before she was convicted of naturalization fraud.
Rasmieh once worked for the Arab-American Action Network. The group was founded by Mona Khalidi, the wife of Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi, who was close with Barack and Michelle Obama when they lived in Chicago, Illinois.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz
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