Students will hear disputed speakers

Six weeks after members of a human rights organization had been turned away from an Andover High School speaking engagement, they were invited back. Their reemergence, though, has left a bad taste in the mouths of many in the Jewish community who believe the group's message amounts to little more than deceitful demagoguery.

Members of the group, Wheels of Justice, a Wisconsin-based organization with a long track record of condemning Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, will speak before the end of next month, school officials said. They will be preceded by two speakers on different days addressing the issues of the First Amendment and the history of the Middle East.

"I don't think [Wheels of Justice] really adds anything to the discussion except to demonize Israel," said Rabbi Robert Goldstein of Temple Emanuel in Andover, who has criticized the organization after seeing members speak two years ago in North Andover. "I don't think they are going to elevate the discussion."

Mazin Qumsiyeh, a coordinator and speaker at Wheels of Justice, said the organization does not represent any one point of view but tries to share stories of human rights abuses through personal experiences. Some are in connection with the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, others the war in Iraq.

"We don't believe there is one or two points of view, " Qumsiyeh said. "We believe there are millions of points of view from every person's perspective."

The controversy started when six social studies teachers invited the speakers to address eight classes studying a variety of topics, including world civilization, democracy and the media, and the Middle East.

But two days before they were scheduled to address the students, Andover High School p rincipal Peter Anderson received about a dozen phone calls from parents concerned about a perceived anti-Israel slant in the group's message.

Anderson postponed the speakers ' appearances so he could learn more about them, he said in an interview this week. More than 200 students signed a petition asking that the speakers be allowed into the school, according to Tom Meyers, one of the teachers who invited the group.

At the same time, the teachers contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which wrote a letter to the School Committee charging that Anderson was suppressing the teachers' First Amendment rights and engaging in viewpoint discrimination.

After conferring with the committee and the School Department's lawyer, Anderson relented last week, but with the proviso that two additional speakers address the classes beforehand. Those speakers have not been chosen.

"I'm not going to pick people who represent Israel or Jews; I'm really trying to stay away from that," Anderson said. "I'm looking for people who are well-versed in the areas, probably academics."

Goldstein said he was unhappy with the compromise because he believes the Wheels of Justice does not engage in debate as much as bombast. The rabbi offered the analogy of a debate about same-sex marriage. Two people with opposing views on the subject would be educational, he said. But inviting a speaker who "believes gay people should be deprogrammed and made straight is just anti homosexual."

Sarah Wunsch, the ACLU attorney who contacted the School Department, stated that Goldstein was "picking and choosing" who could speak and who could not.

The teachers have the right to bring in speakers from any perspective, she said, as long as they address the curriculum and are age-appropriate for the students.

In this case, speakers from Wheels of Justice are both, Wunsch said. Asked about Goldstein's analogy, she said having a speaker who believed homosexuals should be deprogrammed could be beneficial for students as long as they were prepared and it fit within the curriculum.

"These kids are going to graduate soon and they are going to have to grapple with all these issues," Wunsch said. "This could be a really good educational experience."

Qumsiyeh said speakers from the organization address colleges and high schools around the country hundreds of times a year. He said he was aware of only one other incident in which a speaker from the group had been turned away.

The conflict in Andover occurs at a time of high tension surrounding the issue of free speech and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lobbyists for the Jewish community have been the target of high-profile condemnations recently for allegedly suppressing criticism of Israel. In last Sunday's Los Angeles Times, former President Jimmy Carter, who is promoting his new book that calls Israel's refusal to give back occupied Arab land the greatest stumbling block to peace in the Middle East, stated that such suppression was very real.

"For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts," Carter wrote in the Times. "This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices."

Andrew Tarsy, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said there is no place for Wheels of Justice in a high school. He also strongly disagreed with Carter's view or the implication that there is anything wrong with trying to keep Wheels of Justice out of the classroom.

"Free speech on behalf of Israel gets labeled as bullying," Tarsy said, "when, in fact, there's nothing more American than expressing a point of view with passion and intelligence and trying to persuade people of your point of view. And that doesn't just mean speaking out but speaking out about people you disagree with."

Douglas Belkin can be reached at dbelkin@globe.com.