New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently posted: “A member of an offshoot of the Jewish Defense League — designated by the FBI as a ‘known violent extremist organization’ — was allegedly building explosive devices to target the home of Nerdeen Kiswani in a chilling act of political violence. The defendant reportedly planned to flee to Israel following the attack.” See interview with Kiswani at the Electronic Intifada.
This is hardly the first time a murderer planned to flee to Israel to avoid justice.
WILLIAM YOUMANS, william.youmans@north
JASON OSDER, [email protected]
Youmans and Osder are co-directors of the just released film “Who Killed Alex Odeh” which was recently awarded a prize for journalistic excellence at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film follows Israeli reporter:
DAVID SHEEN, [email protected], @
Sheen wrote “Alex Odeh Assassination: New Testimony Could Finally Bring Jewish Defense League to Justice” and “As U.S. Refuses to Act, Suspected Alex Odeh Assassins Enjoy Influential Role in Israeli Politics” for MintPress News.
Sheen noted: “Palestinian-American activist Alex Odeh was brutally murdered in public. Odeh, the regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), was killed when a bomb exploded as he entered the ADC’s Santa Ana, California offices on October 11, 1985.
“It is widely believed that the culprits were Robert Manning, Keith Israel Fuchs, and Baruch Ben Yosef (also known as Andy Green). The trio were members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a Jewish supremacist domestic terrorist group that had repeatedly harassed and threatened Odeh. From 1984 until his death in 2002, the group was led by the notorious militant Irv Rubin.” Manning served decades in prison for the murder of another individual, but is currently out on parole. Fuchs and Ben Yosef fled to Israel and have never been charged.
“Law enforcement officials told me that the FBI has always considered the three men its top suspects. But despite significant evidence of the trio’s guilt, the bureau has never pressed for charges. Many have alleged high government interference.”
Youmans notes the JDL has a long history of using violence against Arab-American activists. Before Odeh’s assasination, the ADC first published a report on the JDL: “A Cult of Racism and Terror, A Threat to Arab-Americans.”