The dove stolen from an Alex Odeh memorial is traveling again—this time by invitation
A bronze dove that vandals once tore from a monument in Santa Ana, California, is traveling again. This time, it is leaving with permission.
The bird belongs to a memorial for Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American poet, scholar, and civil-rights organizer assassinated in 1985. Artist Jon Rubin has made the recovered dove the center of The Stolen Dove, a participatory artwork whose temporary hosts gather around it and keep a replica after it moves on. The project's history and current circuit of visits are covered in Hyperallergic's A Living Memorial to Palestinian Activist Alex Odeh Takes Flight.
Why the dove left the monument
Khalil Bendib, an Algerian-American sculptor, created the Santa Ana memorial in 1994. His figure of Odeh carries a book and the now-traveling bird, joining scholarship with Odeh's work for peace. The statue later drew repeated attacks. Red paint struck it in 1996 and 1997; in 2020, someone removed the dove by force. It was found and restored before Rubin arranged a deliberate removal in December 2025.
Rubin had first seen the work during a 2023 residency at Santa Ana's Grand Central Art Center. He learned that the monument could remain a target while many people in the surrounding community were not familiar with its subject. With approval from Bendib and Odeh's eldest daughter, Helena, Rubin turned that tension into a different kind of memorial: the original dove moves among people, while replicas mark the relationships formed along its route.
Hosts have brought the object into dinners, performances, and religious gatherings. Odeh's family received one visit; artists opened their homes for others; and one stop placed the bird at a Passover meal. The project also appeared at the January 2026 Sundance screening of the documentary Who Killed Alex Odeh?, according to Hyperallergic's account.
Who Alex Odeh was
Odeh was born in Jifna, Palestine, in 1944 and moved to the United States in 1972. At California State University, Fullerton, political science became his graduate field; his later teaching there covered the Arabic language and the region's history. By the early 1980s, he was leading West Coast work for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and promoting dialogue among Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities.
Odeh died in the October 11, 1985 bombing of the committee's Santa Ana offices; the device was a pipe bomb. He had been due to address a synagogue later that day. The murder remains unsolved. The FBI and journalists have treated members of the Jewish Defense League as possible suspects, but nobody has been arrested for the killing, Hyperallergic reported.
Where the project goes next
The dove reached a Hollywood house gallery on July 18 for a program combining food, music, and readings. The gathering included Joshua Oduga's reinterpretation of a Sabreen song based on Hussein Barghouti's poetry, as well as work from Odeh's own Whispers in Exile in a new translation by Emily Drumsta.
Plans described to Hyperallergic send the project next toward the Bay Area and Pittsburgh, with another Santa Ana event also under development. Its longer journey points back to the original monument: the dove is scheduled to return in fall 2027. Helena Odeh also hopes it can visit Jifna before that reunion. Each stop adds another group of people who know whose hand the bird came from—and why it left.