Group uses bus to protest

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Before pro-Palestinian activists arrive at Duke University for a conference later this week, the campus will have been home to a jarring sight: the wreckage of a Jerusalem city bus left gutted and burned by a deadly suicide bombing.\nThe green city bus was to be displayed Tuesday and Wednesday as a protest by members of the Jewish community. The bus was carrying commuters through Jerusalem Jan. 29 when a Palestinian police officer detonated explosives strapped to his body.\nMembers of the National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement are expected to begin their meeting at Duke Friday. The group is an umbrella for organizations seeking an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original land.\nDuke officials have said they do not endorse the Palestinian group's mission but are allowing the conference on campus in the interest of free speech and educational dialogue.\nOrganizers of the bus display say they want to achieve the same things.\n"I think it's fine to have the conference. A university is a place for open discussion on all kinds of issues," said David Breau, a Duke law student from Highland Park, N.J., who helped bring the bus to campus. "Our intent is for students to see the result of terrorism in a way you don't get from the newspaper or on TV."\nThe 40-foot bus exploded about 50 feet from the home of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, killing 11 people and wounding 50. It blew out the back and roof of the vehicle, sending body parts flying into nearby buildings.\nThe wrecked bus' visit is sponsored by the local chapter of Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish educational group affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch, an international Jewish organization.\nRann Bar-On, a Duke graduate student from Israel and a conference organizer, said the protesters are free to say what they want, but he questioned the fairness of the display, calling it "extremely sensationalist."\n"It's also extremely one-sided. There is no balance. They're not showing the effect of missiles hitting areas in Palestine," said Bar-On, who wants his country to withdraw from the occupied territories.\nBar-On said about 430 people had registered for the three-day conference as of Monday. The agenda includes a panel of Duke and University of North Carolina faculty members who will discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and workshops about how college students can pressure universities to sell investments in companies that do business with Israel.\nA series of pro-Israel events is planned for the same weekend at Duke's Freeman Center for Jewish Life.\nBar-On said he hopes those who are unfamiliar with the decades-old issues will be more influenced by the talks than by any demonstration.\n"I hope personally they'll come to the conference and hear a balanced view of both sides of the debate," he said. "I hope that such emotional blackmail will not have too much influence on them because that's what it is -- emotional blackmail"