Rival rallies call on King's message

The wreckage of Jerusalem's bus 19, its seats mangled and charred from a suicide bomb a year ago, stopped in downtown Berkeley on Sunday, in testimony to terrorism and as a symbol of the 1960s civil rights struggle embodied by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., sponsors said.

"Martin Luther King stood with the buses that were bombed by the Ku Klux Klan," said the Rev. Rosemary Schindler, speaking at a rally in Martin Luther King Park sponsored by Israel Action Committee of the East Bay. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who marched with King, said Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, for the 11 passengers blown up by the bomber, who also died in the Jan. 29, 2004, blast.

The bombed-out green bus, which eerily resembles the AC Transit buses that ply Berkeley, is on a national tour and will stop in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza today.

Opponents said Sunday's exercise was callously selective in its condemnation of violence.

Many carried placards denouncing actions by Israel's Army such as the bulldozing of houses and uprooting of olive groves, not to mention the killings of Palestinians.

"It's sad that they chose this day to bring the bus here," said Jeff Blankfort, a Jew carrying a placard showing Israeli soldiers beating up a Palestinian. "As if what Israel is doing represents peace: occupying another country, another people's land, which, if King was alive today, he would speak against."

Rafad Fadel, an Israeli Druze who has served in the Israeli Army and speaks Arabic and Hebrew, said Sunday's rally, notwithstanding its stated goal, was apt to incite hate by its appeal to the emotions.

"This is not a peace statement," Fadel said of the bus display. "It says, "Be angry.'"

Rally organizers claimed King's imprimatur, citing statements he made in the 1960s supporting Israel.

The speeches were often upstaged by other goings-on such as street theater in the park and a counterdemonstration across Martin Luther King Jr. Way, where several Jewish organizations advocated peaceful coexistence of an Israeli and a Palestinian state and a Palestinian group called for eviction of Israelis from the Middle East.

"Israel is a state that has no right to exist," said Raed Abdallah. "It was placed on stolen land."

Across the street, Daniel Nevis, clad in a San Ramon Valley Fire District T-shirt and a yarmulke, blew a shofar, the ram's horn used as a battlefield communications device in ancient times and nowadays to usher in Jewish holy days.

"Blow the shofar; crush the head of the enemy," shouted Nevis, who was raised a Christian but traces Jewish roots to Cherokee ancestors who intermarried with Dutch refugees from the Inquisition.

As the Palestinian group shouted "Palestine! Palestine!" Nevis, looking skyward, pleaded, "Mashiah (Messiah)! Mashiah! Come back! We need you! Beat the Philistines back!

"You, Babylon's spirit: Go back to the pit," he screamed. "Go home, in Jesus' name."

Berkeley police later arrested two people, one from each camp, after a brief scuffle.

. . . and a Palestinian group called for eviction of Israelis from the Middle East. "Israel is a state that has no right to exist," said Raed Abdallah. "It was placed on stolen land."

Religion of Peace, aye.

A Berkeley rally against terrorism that featured a bombed Israeli bus turned briefly violent Sunday when angry counter demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags marched into the mostly pro-Israel crowd.

Riot police quickly separated combatants, some of whom came to blows, during the afternoon event organized by the Israeli Action Committee of the East Bay. Police cited one man on a charge of misdemeanor battery.

"Emotions were high, but overall, aside from verbal confrontations and one physical altercation, the event went relatively smoothly,'' said police Sgt. Joe Okies. . . .