Oct 11, 1985

On October 11th, 1985, Alex Odeh entered the ADC office in Santa Ana, California. His entry triggered an explosive device that caused significant damage to the building and injured several bystanders. Alex Odeh died shortly after the explosion at a nearby hospital. This was not an isolated incident, as ADC offices in Boston and Washington, D.C., were also targeted with violence in 1985. The explosion that claimed Odeh’s life was categorized as a domestic terrorist crime by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in February 1986. To this day, no one has been arrested or charged for Alex Odeh’s murder and it remains an active FBI investigation. 

At a congressional hearing in July of 1986, then Assistant Executive FBI Director Oliver B. Revell stated that suspects had been identified, but there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. Revell described the suspects as “Jewish extremist elements” and refused to connect them directly to the Jewish Defense League (JDL) . The JDL is a radical organization that preaches a violent form of anti-Arab, Jewish nationalism. founded in 1968 that has “orchestrated countless terrorist attacks in the U.S. and abroad” (Southern Poverty Law Center n.d.).