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Several Berkeley residents plan to protest Sunday’s display of the remains of a Jerusalem commuter bus blown up by a suicide bomber last January. 

Protesters say the display, which will be held on Center Street beside Martin Luther King Jr. Park from noon to 3 p.m., is out of context and creates an inaccurate representation of the complex Middle East conflict.  

Among the organizations planning to protest is the Middle East Children’s Alliance, which said it will also display pictures of the Palestinian children killed during recent violence. 

“I want them to understand that there is suffering on both sides,” said Barbara Lubin, the organization’s executive director. According to Lubin, some 650 Palestinian and 120 Israeli children have died since September 2000. Several thousand adults have been killed. 

The organization also wants to educate viewers about what they see as the root cause for violence on both sides: Israel’s occupation. “All of us abhor violence, but there is really only one way to stop it, and that is for Israel to get out,” she said.  

The Israel Action Committee (IAC) of the East Bay is sponsoring the event. The Jerusalem Connection (formerly called Christians for Israel), a Washington D.C.-based organization, brought the bus to Washington D.C. from Europe where it was originally displayed outside The Hague to protest the International Court of Justice’s vote to condemn the separation wall Israel is building in an attempt to keep out terrorists. 

IAC’s chair, Susanne “Sanne” DeWitt, has led the project, personally paying more than half of the $11,000 it cost to ship the bus across the country to Berkeley. The city is also requiring her to pay for a private security company to assist Berkeley police and to purchase $1 million worth of liability insurance. 

Late last year, before the city granted her a permit, DeWitt posted a scathing letter on the Internet that said the city’s insurance and security demands, among other things, had “placed obstacles in my way at every turn.” 

“They were reluctant [to issue the permit],” she said. 

Lisa Caronna, the deputy city manager, said the permit request was originally submitted while the person needed to approve it was away on medical leave. Otherwise, she said the city treated the application like any other for a special event.  

“We had to go through a whole variety of issues that we normally do,” she said. 

DeWitt said the event is broadly supposed to address global terrorism. She said it is also a reaction to Representative Barbara Lee’s refusal to support a resolution passed by Congress in July condemning the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the wall. 

“I feel that people in her district should know about her vote,” DeWitt said. 

Jim Hutchens, the president of the Jerusalem Connection, said that along with the bus there will be a display of enlarged photos of the victims. This has raised concern for at least one family member of the 11 Israelis that died on the bus.  

Carrie Devorah, a photojournalist based in Washington D.C., was supposed to speak at the Berkeley rally but decided to travel to Israel for the one-year anniversary, Jan. 29, of the death of her brother, Yechezkel “Chezi” Goldberg, on the bus. 

Devorah said she was unaware that the tour has been using enlarged photos of the victims and said her family was never contacted for permission. While Devorah said she wants people to know about the impact of suicide bombings, she is concerned her brother’s image and name could be misused. 

“It is my hope the bus will be retired after the first anniversary and be removed from the controversy it is being taken into,” she said.  

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