A Year Later, a Bomber Is Still at Large : Reward Set in Odeh’s Death

The mystery of who killed Alex M. Odeh remains unsolved.

On Saturday, it will have been a year since a bomb tore through the door of Odeh’s Santa Ana office, mortally wounding the Arab rights leader just 12 hours after he had appeared on a late-night television news program to condemn terrorism and defend PLO leader Yasser Arafat as “a man of peace.”

Frustrated by the inability of local police and the FBI to find his killer, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) on Saturday will offer a $100,000 reward in the case.

Details of the reward will be announced at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel before a memorial dinner sponsored by the ADC, for which Odeh served as Western regional coordinator, a spokesman for the group said. Law enforcement officials will be present to discuss the reward. Speakers, including a civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, will pay tribute to Odeh.

In the year since Odeh’s death, the investigation itself has generated controversy. The FBI at one point attributed the bombing to the Jewish Defense League (JDL) but then backed off, saying instead that “Jewish extremist elements” were suspected.

The FBI also denied that its Odeh inquiry had been terminated despite a Jan. 7 Secret Service memo saying that the investigation had “met with negative results” and was being closed in Los Angeles.

Odeh’s homicide has been a tragedy for his family and those who knew and respected him. Yet, in death, his work on behalf of Arab-Americans and peace has continued, say friends and associates.

One indication was Thursday’s posthumous award to Odeh from the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission for his “dedicated human relations service and the advancement of understanding about emerging ethnic groups in Los Angeles County.” He was similarly honored last March by the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

Criticism Withheld

Nevertheless, frustration with the investigation lingers.

“Approaching a year . . . we don’t have an arrest,” Odeh’s brother, Sami Odeh of Orange, said in a recent interview. “At this point, I can’t honestly, truthfully say I am satisfied.”

Yet he withholds criticism for now. Up until now, “I still (have not) lost faith in the FBI and authorities,” he said. “Time will tell whether my optimism is justified or not.”

Palestine-born Alex Odeh, 41, was the ADC’s first regional director in charge of West Coast operations, helping Arab-Americans with health, immigration and discrimination problems. He is survived by his wife, Norma, and children Helena, 8, Samya, 6, and Suzanne, 2. Norma Odeh, who accepted her husband’s posthumous award Thursday, declined to be interviewed for this story.

“The children probably are the saddest aspect of it all,” his brother said. “I don’t think they really grasp what went on yet.”

Odeh arrived in the United States in 1967, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1977. He worked at the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission in Washington for several years. He taught Arabic at Cal State Fullerton, and Coastline Community College, often lecturing on Middle East history and politics.

“He was extremely successful at building dialogues with all kinds of groups: Mexicans, Jews, blacks,” Sami Odeh said.

However, at the time of Odeh’s death, Irv Rubin, the head of the 7,000-member Jewish Defense League, expressed other sentiments.

“I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over it,” Rubin said after the bombing.

Now, however, Rubin offers a softer appraisal. “I don’t condone any outrageous action unless it’s in self-defense. I feel very, very sorry for his wife and children,” Rubin said in an interview this week.

Rubin explained that his “cold” reaction to Odeh’s death came only days after Odeh’s comments regarding the hijacking of an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, in which an American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer, was killed.

Odeh, interviewed the evening before his death on KABC-TV Channel 7 news, said he was convinced that the Palestine Liberation Organization was not involved in the hijacking and praised PLO leader Yasser Arafat as a “man of peace.”

But Rubin remains critical of the ADC and Odeh for supporting the PLO, an organization that he says is responsible for the murder of Americans and others. He argued before the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission against its posthumous award to Odeh.

“Alex Odeh had his own agenda, and that agenda was pro-PLO,” Rubin said this week.

Rubin was “enraged” when the FBI in November, 1985, attributed the Odeh bombing and two others on the East Coast to the JDL. “The repercussions are simple,” he said. “A federal agency pointed a finger at an innocent group--and (consequently) the world is convinced the JDL did it.”

Despite the Secret Service memo, the FBI in July said the Odeh case was “the highest priority investigation in our domestic terrorism program.” The agency continues to actively investigate the case, FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said this week. Santa Ana police also have “an active investigation” and are cooperating with the FBI, spokesman Lt. Robert Chavez said.

But Faris Bouhafa, national spokesman for the ADC, said there is “growing skepticism within the Arab community nationally as . . . to the extent to which the FBI has devoted resources in its investigation.”

Among the positive developments from Odeh’s death has been the “raising of public’s consciousness about the whole issue of violence and discrimination against Arab-Americans,” Bouhafa said. “But I think it’s tragic that it took the death of Alex Odeh to alert the American public.”

Rabbi Henry Front of Temple Beth David in Westminster said the “one good thing that has come out of it is members of the Arab and Jewish communities have started talking to each other a little bit, learning we have some common problems, such as anti-Semitism that affects them as much as it does us.

“Here in Orange County, relations have improved considerably. At least now we’re talking to one another. It absolutely can be traced to the effects of the bombing.”

Some in the Jewish community have a more cautious assessment. “There is still a lot of bad blood between the two communities,” said Steven E. Edelman, Orange County regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. “What Alex’s death did was to unite the two communities for an instant . . . in an abhorrence for violence. That feeling still pervades. . . .”

While Arab-Americans and Jews may remain at odds over solutions to the problems of the Middle East, Edelman said, “at least on the death of Alex Odeh, we are all of one mind. . . . Whoever was responsible should be apprehended.”

One immediate effect of the Odeh killing was the “tremendous chill” that spread through Southern California’s Arab-American community, the ADC’s Bouhafa said. “People were genuinely afraid for a while to continue pursuing the activities that Alex Odeh had directed during his life.