Arab Rights Group Reopening Chapter in County 2 1/2 Years After Odeh Killing

An Orange County chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is forming again, 2 1/2 years after a bomb killed Arab rights leader Alex Odeh in Santa Ana.

A chapter reopening dinner is scheduled Saturday night at an undisclosed restaurant in Orange County. Zac Sidawi, an ADC chapter organizer, said the meeting location is being kept secret for security reasons. Sidawi said about 500 ADC members in Orange County are expected to join.

Odeh, 41, West Coast director, was killed Oct. 11, 1985, when a bomb tore through the front door of the ADC office in Santa Ana as he arrived for work.

Orange County Arabs were afraid to reorganize after Odeh’s death, Sidawi said. The night before he died, the Palestine-born Odeh had appeared on television to condemn terrorism and defend PLO leader Yasser Arafat as “a man of peace.”

The slaying was never solved, but an FBI spokesman Thursday said the case is still pending. At one point, the FBI attributed the bombing to the Jewish Defense League, a group formed to combat anti-Semitism. But the FBI later backed off, saying instead that “Jewish extremist elements” were suspected.

After the bombing, ADC relocated its West Coast office to Los Angeles, and its Orange County members joined that chapter, which had 1,500 members. Sidawi said. ADC has about 20,000 members nationwide, he said.

For security purposes, the address of the new office has not been given out, and meeting locations are kept secret. Sidawi said only that the new office is in a more secure building than the former one in Santa Ana.

Want to Speak Out

Sidawi said that ADC members in Southern California have kept a low profile since the killing but that they want to start speaking out again because of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“They don’t think the Palestinians are getting a fair shake, publicity-wise,” Sidawi said. “They would like to have a voice.”

Sidawi said another motivating factor for Orange County Arab-Americans is that they are tired of driving to Los Angeles for meetings.

Sidawi said the Orange County chapter members will begin meeting regularly, electing chapter officers in the next few months. They will not, however, open an ADC branch office.

Arab-Americans remain embittered over the fact that Odeh’s death was not solved, Sidawi said. They maintain that the case should have received more publicity.

“It is just a kind of disillusionment,” Sidawi said. “Here we are in a free society where free speech is valued, and yet this thing has put a damper on our ability to speak freely. We are not given the opportunity to speak freely.”