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Yesterday marked the 26th Anniversary of the murder of Alex Odeh. Alex was killed on October 11, 1985, when a powerful pipe bomb exploded as he unlocked and opened the door of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) office in Santa Ana. In addition to killing Alex Odeh, the bomb injured several other victims.
Alex was ADC’s Southern California Regional Director, a published poet, a lecturer of Arabic Language and Middle East history at Coastline College in Santa Ana, and a tireless peace activist. He dedicated his life to the defense of civil liberties at home, and civil and human rights abroad. On the day of his murder, Alex was scheduled to speak at Friday prayer services at Congregation, a synagogue in Fountain Valley. Alex was a U.S. citizen and a Palestinian Roman Catholic, who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1972. He is survived by his wife Norma and their three daughters.
The FBI’s case into Alex Odeh’s murder remains open, with a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to an arrest and conviction. However, no arrest has yet been made in spite of the fact that press reports have stated over the years that the FBI identified members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) as suspects. None of the identified JDL individuals has ever been charged or prosecuted in connection with the murder, and some have fled to Israel. According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in more than 40 terrorist acts since its inception in 1968. (Its members were allowed to freely disrupt a 2005 event at Cal State Fullerton, unlike what we’ve recently witnessed in the Irvine 11 case.)
JDL members disrupting CSUF event on May 9, 2005
The lack of closure of Alex’s murder by the FBI and the Department of State (DOS) has been viewed as a sign that the life of an American civil rights advocate with Palestinian roots is not valued by the U.S. Government as much as other American lives. The FBI and DOS should allocate necessary resources for resolving this domestic terrorism case.
This story caught my attention at the time (1985) mainly because it happened just a few blocks from my home. It seemed to me that the tragic event did not receive much news coverage – at least not the coverage it deserved. I could be wrong about that – I was busy raising a family at the time. That is just my recollection.
Thanks for this post which serves as a reminder to justice undone.
And for another example of the hypocrisy of the Irvine 11 fiasco!
and before the Irvine 11, there was the LA8. “Odeh’s murder was an early sign of Southern California’s treatment of Palestinian dissent”: http://mondoweiss.net/2011/10/alex-odehs-murder-26-years-ago-was-an-early-sign-of-southern-californias-treatment-of-palestinian-dissent.html
Since you cant mention word JEW in this blog without being labeled ant-Semitic noting will chance.
I still do not understand why I must be pro-Semitic.
I remember the LA8 well.
Alex Odeh was my Arabic teacher the year before he was murdered. He helped open my eyes to the other side of the Israel vs. Palestinians conflict and attitudes toward Arabs in general. The class was very small and friendly. He invited us all to his home one weekend for coffee and conversation. I invited him to speak to the Pomona Valley Humanist Association, which I was a member of at that time (1984). I picked him up at his office in Santa Ana that evening. I remember there were photos of Jesse Jackson and others on the wall. On the way up to Pomona we talked about religion and the conflict. He said that he was not religious either and that religion was the (basic) cause of the conflict. The editorial in the Daily Pilot (at that time a regular news daily like the Register) a day or so after his murder was sickening, implying that he got what he deserved for saying in a recent TV interview that Arafat was “a man of peace.” In class and in conversations he was very soft spoken, polite, and diplomatic, but did not hesitate to say what he felt. He was very kind and helpful to his students, even when some of them said very irrational things in his class. I would say that he was one of the teachers who made a significant difference in how I view the world.
How could Odeh have been a man of peace and so wrong about Arafat?