Terror Victim’s Niece Condemns Women’s Strike For Including Convicted Killer In Leadership
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — The niece of an Israeli killed in a terrorist attack nearly 50 years ago criticized the planned March 8 International Women’s Strike for allowing into a leadership role one of the convicted terrorists that killed her uncle.
“What justification is there for Rasmea Odeh, a woman who killed two people (with the intention of killing more!) to lead a peaceful fight for human rights?” Benaryeh writes.
Eddie Joffe and Leon Kanner were killed at the Supersol market in Jerusalem on Feb. 21. 1969, when a bomb set by Odeh and an accomplice exploded in the crowded store. Nine people were injured in the blast.
Odeh was convicted and sentenced by an Israeli military court in 1970 to life in prison for two bombing attacks. She spent 10 years in an Israeli prison before being released in a prisoner exchange in 1980.
Odeh confessed to planting the bomb, though in recent years has claimed that the confession was tortured out of her, which is disputed by Israeli officials.
Odeh, an associate director at the Arab American Action Network, was found guilty in November 2014 of lying on her application for citizenship to the United States by covering up her conviction and imprisonment for the bombing attacks.
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