A Stolen Dove Takes Flight Again

A Stolen Dove Takes Flight Again

Outside a public library in Santa Ana, California, sat a bronze statue of a man with a book under one arm, a dove taking flight from the other. Palestinian-American poet, scholar, and civil rights leader Alex Odeh was assassinated in 1985; nine years later, Algerian-American artist Khalil Bendib made the statue in his honor. It was vandalized with red paint in 1996 and then again the year after; in 2020, the dove — a symbol of peace — was stolen…