Bombed Israeli bus to come to Berkeley

by Martin Snapp
The Berkeley Voice - August 27, 2004

The mangled wreckage of a bus destroyed by a suicide bomber in Israel is coming to Berkeley, and local pro-Palestinian groups are crying foul.

"It's a public relations ploy," said Ramiz Rafeedie, spokesman for the Bay Area chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "Palestinians can barely get their children to school, much less to the streets of Berkeley to tell their side of the story."

Susan Green, president of Jews for a Free Palestine, agreed with this point of view.

"It's meant to demonize Palestinians and deflect the American people away from the fact that millions of our tax dollars are spent daily to support the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine."

No, it is an appeal for peace, said Susanne DeWitt, chairwoman of Israeli Action Committee of the East Bay. "This bus is about terrorism, period. People need to see what terrorism really looks like."

The bomber attacked the bus, Jerusalem No. 19, last Jan. 29, killing 11 people and injuring 50. DeWitt said she decided to bring it here in protest of a vote by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, against a resolution condemning the International Court of Justice's recent ruling against Israel's security fence on the West Bank.

"I want to take it to downtown Oakland and park it right in front of her field office," said DeWitt. "But first, we're going to park it across from Berkeley City Hall in Martin Luther King Park. A bombed-out bus has powerful meaning for those of us who lived through the civil rights movement and remember the Freedom Rider buses that were bombed by the Ku Klux Klan."

Jerusalem No. 19 is on tour throughout the United States, sponsored by a conservative Christian group called Christians for Israel and an Orthodox Jewish group called ZAKA, which has taken upon itself the task of collecting body parts after suicide bombings and preparing them for Jewish burial.

If all goes as planned, the bus will arrive in Berkeley next Jan. 29, the first anniversary of its bombing. DeWitt estimates the cost of bringing it here at $2,500 -- mostly for insurance and permit fees -- which the Israel Action Committee is collecting through a series of private fund-raisers.

She expressed concern about hostile demonstrations -- or worse.

"This bus was bombed once before. Who knows what the response will be?" she said.

"Oh please!" retorted Green. "This proves my point. Whenever you criticize Israel, you're accused of being a terrorist."

But DeWitt, a survivor of the Dachau concentration camp, said we ignore the lessons of history at our peril.

"I've seen it all before -- the intimidation, the 'good' people afraid to speak out," she said. "I'm not saying the United States is like Weimar Germany; far from it. But somebody has to take a stand against violence before it's too late."

Comments

[Seymour Ross]

To: Martin Snapp:

I read your article on "Bombed Israeli Bus to Come to Berkeley." I wrote an article, too long to send about the the "Presbyterian Church (USA)." They decided in a divestment campaign against Israel, equating the Jewish state with apartheid Sourth Africa.

It would be a wonderful promotion to send the burnt out bus at the door step of the church. Nowhere in their condemnation is any reference made to the killing of innocent Israeli's.

Your article was a refreshing change to what we keep reaeding in the press.

Unfortunately, I do not have your E-mail address.

Regards,

Seymour Ross