41 Years Later, Alex Odeh’s Killers Still Evade Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 11, 2026
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Washington, D.C. | Forty-one years ago, on October 11, 1985, Alex Odeh, a Palestinian American civil rights leader and Regional Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), was assassinated when a bomb exploded as he opened the door to ADC’s office in Santa Ana, California. He was 41 years old, a husband, and a father of three young daughters.

More than four decades later, not a single person has been brought to justice for his murder.

The failure to solve Alex’s murder is not a failure of information. It is a failure of political will.

Investigators identified suspects associated with the extremist Jewish Defense League (JDL) decades ago. FBI memoranda documented Israel’s lack of cooperation with the investigation, and subsequent reporting has uncovered extensive leads that could help resolve the case. Yet no charges have been filed.

The United States must confront an uncomfortable question: Why has the assassination of an American civil rights leader remained unresolved for more than four decades despite substantial evidence and identified suspects?

The answer cannot be separated from Alex’s Palestinian identity, his political advocacy, and the extraordinary influence of the pro-Israel lobby on American institutions. The political protection afforded to Israel, and the reluctance of successive administrations to challenge that relationship, have undermined attaining justice in this case. No foreign alliance, political lobby, or diplomatic calculation should impede bringing to justice the murderers of an American citizen.

Alex Odeh’s case is a microcosm of a broader injustice: the pro-Israel lobby’s influence and the obstruction of efforts to secure justice for American citizens murdered both in the United States and in Palestine. Today, the consequences of this selective pursuit of accountability are more apparent than ever.

Notably, as revealed in the new documentary Who Killed Alex Odeh?, directed by Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans, two of Odeh’s killers are West Bank settlers living on stolen Palestinian land. One has even proudly participated in efforts to block lifesaving aid from reaching starving, critically injured, and sick Palestinians in Gaza. Opening in select theaters on October 30, the film examines the institutional failures that have allowed Alex’s murder to remain unresolved for decades.

Odeh’s story is a warning about what happens when political violence is tolerated to shield the pro-Israel lobby from accountability. Alex devoted his life to the belief that the rights of one community cannot be separated from those of another. That conviction remains at the heart of ADC’s mission.

For 41 years, Alex Odeh’s family has been denied justice while his killers continue to escape prosecution. ADC refuses to allow his murder to be buried to protect powerful political interests.

Justice for Alex Odeh. Justice for every American and Palestinian life taken with impunity by Israel.