Palestinian activist remembered in Houston

The Palestinian community here has lost a beloved, generous, courageous and dedicated activist and leader. Abu Obeida Omran was killed during an attempted robbery on Aug. 13. Four memorials have been held at the Arab American Cultural Center and hundreds attended his funeral at El Farouk Mosque on Aug. 16 — including Arabs, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos/as, Asians and whites.

Abu Obeida Omran, right, holds banner reading: “Brothers and sisters of Haiti, Palestinian people feel your pain.” WW photo: Gloria Rubac

During the burial a woman said in Spanish that she and her family lived near one of Obeida’s stores. “When [my boys] got older, he encouraged them to attend college and even hired them in his store to help them pay tuition. He allowed them to work around their college schedule. We are so sad and will miss his kindness and his smile,” she said.

Abu Obeida was a leader of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. He was a member of their national coordinating committee and responsible for the organization’s external affairs. He was working to develop chapters in four other cities in Texas. For almost two decades, there was rarely an event for the Palestinian people in Houston that Abu Obeida did not help organize or attend.

In the past year many Palestinian refugees arrived in Houston from Iraq. Abu Obeida helped physically and financially with their resettlement, finding clothing and furniture, housing, jobs and community for them. “He helped the refugees like crazy,” said Sahar Abusada, chair of Palestinians for Peace and Democracy, “because he said he knows how they feel.” He also sponsored students from Palestine to study in the U.S.

Abu Obeida was from the village of Burin, near Nablus on the West Bank. He came to the U.S. in 1990, struggling as most immigrants do. He was a parking lot attendant and worked at pumping gas. Eventually, he became a successful small business owner. He had just opened the store where he was killed two months earlier. He had two small sons and a daughter; his spouse is expecting their fourth child.

Massoud Neyeri, his friend and partner in Al-Awda, said: “Abu always wanted to give back to the community. I was helping him with collecting school supplies for the children in the communities where he had his stores.”

Abu Obeida helped organize the 2009 Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza, raising more than $150,000. Former British Member of Parliament George Galloway sent condolences, which read in part: “The first time I saw this gentle giant was through the Viva Palestina USA convoy. ... He had thrown his heart and soul into the convoy and entered Gaza wearing his Stetson, his Texan cowboy boots and with imitation cow horns on his vehicle. He was wearing his trademark red keffiyah — he was a left-wing Palestinian first and last — and was received as a hero by the Gazans. ... He was a simply unforgettable character. In 35 years of working in the Palestinian cause I have never come across anyone quite like him. He seemed absolutely unstoppable, a force of nature, a dynamo.”

Bob Carter, a leader of Justice for Palestinians, said: “I knew Abu as a man of few words who was truly dedicated to the Palestinian cause. In the background, he was the prime sponsor of countless actions. He was one of the kindest and most giving persons I have ever known. He left a marvelous example for all to follow. I miss him greatly.”

“We will mourn Abu Obeida for a long time, but I vow to stay the course of the struggle he and I joined 20 years ago. I have no choice but to keep the torch up high till a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East is achieved; until Palestinians finally live in their own independent country with Jerusalem as its capital, and Palestinian refugees have finally returned to their homes and land as per U.N. Resolution 194,” said Kamal Khalil, chair of the Houston Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine.

Abu Obeida’s death is a loss to all Houstonians, said Ester King, a veteran of the U.S. civil rights movement and a community activist. King, a volunteer for the Black Heritage Society, said he met Omran more than a year ago as the society reached out to foreign-born owners of stores in African-American neighborhoods. Omran donated money to preserve African-American memorabilia, one of the society’s projects. “Sometimes business people are so focused on their own bottom lines that they don’t leave a lot of room for social justice,” King said. “That was not him.”

At Houston’s 2010 Martin Luther King parade, Obeida organized the float of the Houston Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine. Understanding that the Haitian community was then reeling from earthquakes, he brought the banner that read, “Brothers and sisters of Haiti, Palestinians feel your pain.”

Iranian activist Zhaleh Sahand said: “He was instrumental in the struggle and inspirational. Always modest in his immense generosity, Abu put his money and efforts where his mouth was. He was a solid body of peace and tranquility ... but militant in his spirit ... determined to bring those in need to the shore of survival.”