Originally surviving a fall from the Golden Gate in 1988, Paul Aladdin Alarab died on March 19, 2003, when he jumped from the bridge in protest of the United States' invasion of Iraq. Alarab, whose father was born in Iraq, was a 44-year-old real estate agent from Kensington, California, who climbed over a railing on the east side of the bridge, mid-span. Tying one end of a rope to the bridge and wrapping the other end of the rope around his arms, Alarab then demanded to talk to media. Law enforcement tried to talk him back over the railing while he read a statement he had written denouncing the war started earlier that day. After finishing the statement, he let go of the rope and fell 235 feet to the water. His body was recovered almost immediately, but Alarab did not survive the fall.