From University Hall to Damon Cell: The Story of Tasnim Odeh

Monday, 12 January 2026 was no ordinary day in the occupation’s courtrooms. The curtain fell on yet another chapter of injustice against Jerusalemite student Tasnim Odeh (22 years old), with the issuance of an unjust sentence of one and a half years imprisonment, solely for writing about her martyred father and mourning him.

Tasnim, a law student who had been preparing to graduate and enter courtrooms as a lawyer defending the oppressed, suddenly found herself on the other side of the cage, tried before a system that does not recognise the word. Today, she is the only female Jerusalemite prisoner in Damon Prison, following the release of nine female prisoners as part of the recent exchange deal.

Tasnim was born in 2003 and grew up in the alleyways of Jerusalem, carrying the legacy of a city that knows no surrender. She enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Abu Dis University and was in her final academic year, awaiting 2025 to graduate and fulfil her dream, and that of her martyred father, of becoming a lawyer.

However, this path came to an abrupt end. While engaged in simple work transporting students in her private vehicle in the town of Anata to cover her tuition fees and support her family, she was intercepted by an undercover unit force. They stormed her vehicle in front of a school, confiscated her mobile phone, iPad, and university files, and took her away without explanation.

From that moment, Tasnim transitioned from a student dreaming of justice to a prisoner tried in the name of “the law.”

Tasnim’s story cannot be separated from that of her martyred father, Barakat Odeh, who was killed by occupation forces’ gunfire in October 2022 after carrying out a vehicular attack near Jericho. His body remains held in the numbered graves.

The painful irony is that the daughter lives in captivity of body, while the father lives in captivity of corpse. Thus, two punishments converge upon the family: deprivation of farewell and deprivation of freedom.

The occupation authorities charged Tasnim with “incitement” through social media platforms. During interrogation, it emerged that the file was based on old posts dating back to 2022, which she had published after the martyrdom of her father, containing photographs and words of mourning. Thus, a daughter’s feelings toward her father were transformed into a “security file,” and grief was transformed into a “crime.”

Tasnim’s arrest was not merely a “security” measure but rather a harrowing journey of systematic abuse and violations, according to statements from her lawyer and human rights reports, aimed at breaking her psychologically and extracting confessions under duress.

Tasnim underwent harsh interrogation at the Moskobiyeh interrogation centre lasting 14 consecutive days, at a rate of 6 to 7 hours daily, interspersed with insults, humiliation, and severe psychological pressure. During her transfer to one of the sessions, she was subjected to direct physical assault, when one of the guards struck her on the head and face.

The suffering did not end there. She was held for more than two hours inside the “Bosta,” the fully enclosed transport vehicle, without ventilation, resulting in a severe case of suffocation. She was also subjected to degrading strip searches and was deprived of heating and blankets inside Sharon Prison, before being subsequently transferred to Damon Prison. These measures constitute systematic punitive actions aimed at breaking her will and destroying her psychologically.

On 12 January 2026, the occupation court issued its final verdict against Tasnim of one and a half years imprisonment (18 months), in a case that encapsulates how words, in occupied Jerusalem, can be transformed into a “crime.”

The targeting did not stop at Tasnim alone. Today, occupation forces arrested her young brother, Iyad Odeh, in a step that embodies the policy of collective punishment against the family and confirms that persecution extends not only to words but also to children, in an attempt to accumulate pressure and break the family psychologically and morally.

Tasnim, the daughter of a martyr and law student who was deprived of her graduation, was not tried for a criminal act but for a word and a memory. Today, with the arrest of her young brother, her story transforms from the tale of a prisoner to the tale of an entire family under punishment. This case remains an open cry in the face of injustice and a message that freedom may be bound by chains, but it is never defeated, even from behind bars.