(Some) Jewish leftists are about supporting killers of Jews

BREAKING! JVP BLOCKS MEMORIAL FOR TERROR VICTIMS

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which will give a platform to Rasmea Yousef Odeh, convicted killer of two Israeli students, at their conference March 31-April 2 at the Hyatt McCormick, Chicago, has blocked a request to the Hyatt Hotel to hold a service for her victims.

StandWithUs, an international Israel education organization, asked the Hyatt McCormick to rent a small space for a multi-faith memorial service for Odeh’s victims. The hotel said that they must get permission from JVP for such a memorial and that permission was denied. Hyatt Event Sales Manager Audrey Quevillon responded to the memorial request, “ I am very sorry but I just received notice from Jewish Voice for Peace, that your request for space has been denied.”

In 1969, Odeh was involved in the bombing of a supermarket in Israel that killed two college students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, and wounded nine other shoppers. The young men had been shopping for groceries for a botanical field trip when they were "blown to unrecognizable bits." A day after her arrest, she confessed in a detailed account. Her relative later stated in an interview that, “Rasmeah Odeh was more involved than I was [in the grocery store bombing]... I only got involved during the preparation of explosives.” Odeh also admitted her involvement in a bombing at the British Consulate in Tel Aviv, which took place four days after the supermarket attack.

Her trial was attended by an observer from the Red Cross, who certified it to be fair. Odeh was found guilty in both cases as well as for her involvement with a designated terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Although she was sentenced to life in prison, she was freed after 10 years in a large-scale prisoner swap for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon.

Peggy Shapiro, Midwest Director of StandWithUs, expressed outrage. "Not only is JVP honoring a convicted terrorist at their conference, they have denied a request to hold a memorial service for her victims - Edward Joffe and Leon Kaner. These two young Jews no longer have voices because they died in an attack perpetrated by Rasmea Odeh, and it seems JVP is committed to silencing them even further by refusing to allow us to hold this service in their memory. There is nothing Jewish or peaceful about this disgraceful decision."