Alex Odeh looms massive in Orange County’s consciousness, a long time after he was killed on the age of 41.
One fall morning in 1985 the outstanding Palestinian activist arrived to work on the Santa Ana workplace of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. When he opened the civil rights group’s door, a rigged pipe bomb went off, mortally wounding him.
“How can I overlook that horrible day?” mentioned Michel Shehadeh, who changed Odeh because the West Coast regional director of the group, which shaped in 1980 to fight anti-Arab stereotypes in U.S. media. “Concern unfold by means of the neighborhood like fireplace.”
Mourners filed into a church in Orange for Odeh’s funeral, quietly discussing whether or not assaults would proceed, and the way they may shield the neighborhood, Shehadeh recalled.
Shehadeh described Odeh as a bodily slight man, peaceable and soft-spoken — a lover of poetry. He remembers questioning, “Why this man?”
“He didn’t pose a risk, not in the way in which seemed, and never in the way in which he behaved, and never in the way in which he spoke,” Shehadeh mentioned.
Odeh’s homicide stays unsolved 40 years later. To many Palestinians and different Arabs in Southern California, his demise serves as a grim reminder of the discrimination the neighborhood has confronted.
However he’s additionally a logo of resilience. His reminiscence stands as a name to motion that has taken on renewed significance lately.
When a wave of pupil activism towards Israel’s struggle in Gaza unfurled on college campuses throughout the U.S. final yr, college students at UC Irvine hoisted a banner onto a campus constructing declaring the location “Alex Odeh Corridor,” amid protest chants and the banging of drums.
“The entire narrative round Palestine has shifted. Folks went to the streets,” Shehadeh mentioned. “It’s a distinct world.”
And but, he mentioned, the backlash towards his neighborhood continues.
The detention of latest Columbia College graduate Mahmoud Khalil this yr reminds Shehadeh of his personal arrest by federal brokers in 1987.
Shehadeh was amongst eight arrested on costs referring to their pro-Palestinian activism, and was threatened with deportation, despite the fact that he’d immigrated to the U.S. lawfully as a teen, and was a grocery retailer worker dwelling in Lengthy Seashore.
“Historical past repeats itself,” Shehadeh mentioned.
Hostile encounters felt virtually run-of-the-mill, particularly for many who have been politically energetic.
The Santa Ana workplace the place Hind Baki labored alongside Odeh, first as an intern after which as a full-time worker contemporary out of school, incessantly obtained threatening telephone calls.
Baki mentioned Odeh was, “very matter-of-fact- about it,” telling her to log the calls, and report them to native police.
She recalled him saying, “they name my home on a regular basis, too, however don’t fear, they wouldn’t dare do something in America.”
When she began getting threatening telephone calls on the dwelling she informed her dad and mom she was alarmed. However Odeh reassured her that it was simply discuss.
After the bombing, when Baki took the few packing containers of paperwork she may salvage from the workplace to a brief workplace in Los Angeles, the calls continued. That’s when she determined to get one other job.
William Lafi Youmans, co-creator of a documentary investigating Odeh’s demise, mentioned he grew up in Detroit listening to about Odeh as a cautionary story concerning the risks of changing into too vocal.
“It was a little bit of a warning,” Youmans mentioned. “It’s unhappy, as a result of whoever killed Alex was making an attempt to silence the neighborhood.”
The movie was accomplished two years in the past, simply earlier than 1,200 folks have been killed within the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault in Israel, which additionally resulted in 251 Israelis being taken hostage.
Amid a surge of anti-Palestinian sentiment, Youmans gave up his hope of getting the documentary accepted into movie festivals, whilst Israel launched its bombing marketing campaign in Gaza, which has since killed tens of hundreds of Palestinians.
To mark the anniversary of Odeh’s demise, Youmans and his co-creator held a personal screening of the movie in Costa Mesa Friday evening, and have renewed the method of submitting it to movie festivals.
An FBI investigation into the bombing stays open, and the names of three suspects have been aired publicly within the media. Authorities mentioned they proceed to hunt the general public’s assist.
“The investigation into the homicide of Alex Odeh has spanned generations, however the FBI has by no means given up and can proceed to analyze new leads on this case,” mentioned Akil Davis, assistant director for the FBI’s Los Angeles area workplace, in an announcement.
Davis mentioned the U.S. Division of Justice’s long-time provide of a reward for as much as $1 million for info resulting in an arrest and conviction for the crime nonetheless stands.
“I’m assured that we’ll discover solutions,” Davis mentioned.
Helena , the eldest of Odeh’s three daughters, mentioned she thinks about her father on a regular basis.
“It’s nonetheless painful,” she mentioned. “One other decade has passed by and we’re nonetheless ready for justice. Our lives have grown and blossomed however we haven’t had our father there to see it occur.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee gathers every year at a Backyard Grove lodge for a banquet memorializing Odeh. Earlier this yr, it opened an workplace in Anaheim’s Little Arabia District — for the primary time for the reason that Santa Ana bombing.
Management of the group requested Helena to be its first full-time worker, however the trauma of her father’s assassination gave her pause.
“What if I’m going to work at some point and I don’t come dwelling?” Helena mentioned.
After talking with household, she declined the job provide.
