January 17, 2005
By Laura Ernde, STAFF WRITER
Oakland Tribune
BERKELEY — Emotions ran high Sunday as hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli activists clashed over the presence of a bombed-out bus from Jerusalem where 11 people died.
Berkeley Police cited one person for battery after activists' angry shouts erupted into a brief shoving match, said police spokesman Joe Okies.
About 45 officers broke up the 10-minute disturbance and stood between the opposing groups with their batons drawn.
A crowd, estimated at 500 people, gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Park at the Berkeley Civic Center, listening to speakers condemn worldwide
terrorism.
Organizers of the event said the twisted metal wreckage of the bus, blown up by a suicide bomber in January 2004, was being shown to remind people how terrorism harms innocent people going about their daily lives.
But pro-Palestinian activists, who numbered about 200, gathered across the street in protest, arguing the bus doesn't tell the whole story of the Middle East conflict in which innocent Palestinians have also been killed. They lined up along Martin Luther King Jr. Way holding signs with the names and outlines of Palestinian civilians who have died in the conflict.
At one corner of the park, about a dozen vocal activists shouted across the street at each other.
"Black, red, green and white. We're Palestinians. We're here to fight," chanted several men wearing kuffiyehs, the traditional headdress of Palestinians.
Across the street in the park, pro-Israeli activists shouted back and blew a shofar, a ram's horn typically sounded during Jewish high holidays.
At one point, a small group waving Palestinian flags crossed the street and began handing out copies of an Oakland Tribune letter-to-the-editor written by a Berkeley resident serving in the International Women's Peace Service in the occupied West Bank.
Shouting between the groups grew more heated when a pro-Israeli supporter began yelling at them, "Hide your face. KKK."
Within minutes, the crowd of opposing forces grew larger. That's when the police had to step in. Okies said he didn't know which side the demonstrator who received the citation was from.
After that, the crowd began to disburse, leaving a few groups engaged in passionate but civil debates about the Middle East conflict.
Earlier, from the podium, speakers invoked the words of Martin Luther
King Jr., whose birthday is being celebrated across the country today. "Peace is not merely a distant goal we seek but a means which we arrive at that goal."
Pro-Palestinian demonstrator Essam Mohgoub, 45, of Oakland, said all previous peace accords have been broken.
"The violence is not going to end as long as someone is occupying someone's land. It's not going to end," he said.
Beside the bombed-out bus was a poster filled with photos of 975 people killed in Israel. Pro-Palestinian activists carried signs with pictures of their dismembered dead.
The bus will be on display today in front of San Francisco City Hall between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The event was organized by Sanne DeWitt and the Israel Action Committee of the East Bay, which sponsored the showing.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/news/ci_2528068