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On Jan. 16, an event dubbed a “Rally against Global Terrorism” will be held in Martin Luther King Park, downtown Berkeley. The main purpose of the rally is to oppose Barbara Lee’s position in support of international law.  

The rally will feature a bus that was bombed in Jerusalem in January 2004, in which 11 people were killed. This bus is a powerful and tragic reminder of the violence that engulfs the region. The people who died in that bombing should be remembered and mourned, as much as all the other victims in the conflict.  

However, there is a political agenda behind this rally that supports the Bush/Sharon policies of militarism and occupation. This bus is being taken around the country by Christians for Israel, a right-wing outfit that opposes a negotiated solution that gives any land to Palestinian people. They even oppose Sharon’s very modest proposal to remove illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza.   

The rally is organized locally by the Israel Action Committee, which supports U.S. taxpayers’ funding of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.  This seemingly endless military occupation demolishes Palestinian family homes with Caterpillar bulldozers, kills civilians and fires on crowds with Apache helicopters, and erects hundreds of military blockades that make movement nearly impossible for Palestinian people.  

The rally also advocates for the separation wall that has taken Palestinian land, divided communities, and made some areas of the West Bank simply unlivable. The wall will not provide security for anyone; its purpose is primarily to annex land. This is why in July 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled against the wall, citing it as a violation of international law. Groups that still supported the wall pressured the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution condemning the court’s ruling. This resolution passed Congress, with some votes of dissent, including one by Barbara Lee. This rally was originally conceived as a protest of Lee’s principled stance in support of international law. 

A “Vigil for Global Justice” will be held at the park at the same time. The vigil is a response to the rally organizers’ support for militarism and will offer a radically different vision. We stand with Barbara Lee in defense of the role of international law in resolving conflict. We believe, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, whose life and work we will celebrate that weekend, that for peace to come we must “let justice flow like a river.” King spoke forcefully against the war the U.S. was waging in Vietnam in the name of combating “global Communism,” he would say the same about wars waged in the name of fighting “global terrorism.” The time has come to seek a way out of the madness, to end U.S. funding (with our tax money) of military occupation—in Palestine, in Iraq and elsewhere. To offer an alternative vision, to insist that justice is the way to peace and reconciliation; this is how we will honor King’s legacy, mourn the dead, and work to create a better world.  

Jim Harris is a resident of Berkeley and is a witness to the military occupation in the West Bank as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. 

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