Wheels of Justice

By Crystal Bozek, Staff Writer
Published: Eagle-Tribune

ANDOVER - Anyone looking for a civil discussion of the Middle East conflict during last night’s forum in the Andover High School library would have been sorely disappointed.

What they got instead was a mini civil war.

Many adults in the audience of more than 150 people taunted and laughed at the speakers from the pro-Palestinian group known as Wheels of Justice, who spoke about human rights abuses among Israelis and Palestinians and the violent Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. They showed slides of crying Palestinian children and a video of Israelis demolishing the homes of Palestinians.

The group made it through its whole presentation with few interruptions, but the room erupted into shouting and heckling during the question and answer session.

“They’re liars,” Somerville resident Gregory Solomon yelled at the speakers. “How can anyone believe them?”

One Wheels of Justice speaker was surprised by the outbursts.

“We’ve spoken to 200 high schools in the United States,” said Mazin Qumsiyeh, as shouts echoed throughout the room. “We’ve spoken to a school in New York that was 80 percent Jewish, and had no problems. I really don’t understand.”

The crowd became so vocal that Principal Peter Anderson had to cut the event short, drawing complaints from a group of students in attendance.

“I couldn’t even hear what they were saying half the time because ladies in front of me kept giggling,” 17-year-old Lauren Hartel said. “The parents were so rude, I couldn’t get anything out of it.”

Some of the adults said Wheels of Justice is an extremist, anti-Israel organization.

“You’ve created a hostile environment in the high school,” said Pam Lebowitz of Andover. “That’s reckless behavior on the school’s part. They invited an extreme hate group here and they didn’t give time to the other side.”

The group’s visit is part of a series of forums on Middle East conflicts at Andover High, which Principal Peter Anderson announced last month. Anderson had called off a planned visit by Wheels of Justice in October, but he reversed his decision after teachers union President Tom Meyers threatened a First Amendment lawsuit. Students will hear from Middle East scholars from Harvard University next week.

During the day yesterday, Wheels of Justice speakers visited high school classrooms. The speakers went to six social studies classes, and only students in those classes could attend, although they were allowed to opt out of the presentations if they chose.

“Students asked a variety of questions, and I thought there was great discourse,” Meyers said. “Both sides were respectful. There were some folks who disagreed, and that’s exactly what we would expect.”

That wasn’t the case last night.

School Committee member David Samuels got the crowd going when he asked why Wheels of Justice members had gathered the e-mails and phone numbers of students in the social studies classes, which he said was illegal. His question prompted a round of shouting from audience members, and an apology of sorts from Samuels after the event.

“I meant to make it more civil,” he said to a couple of teachers after watching the event come to a halt. “I screwed up.”

Anderson said he confiscated the list and will send out letters asking for parents’ permission to use the students’ names.

But Anderson was taken aback by last night’s crowd.

“I did not anticipate that level of emotion and hostility,” he said. “All day was uneventful, no incidents at all inside the classrooms.”

An anticipated protest or court injunction by parents and a walkout by students scheduled for the school day yesterday never happened.

But students were unhappy with the response from adults.

Senior Colin Hopkins said the parents acted foolishly in the weeks leading up to the presentation.

“They don’t think we have our own thoughts,” he said. “That we can’t tell what’s fact and what’s propaganda. I’m 18. I’m able to vote, but they treat me like I can’t make my own learning experiences.”

Rustin Zarkar, 17, added: “We can have open discussion with someone, even if it’s one-sided or biased.”

Physics teacher Ron Francis, who helped organize the event, said he was happy students got to see the First Amendment in action.

“They got to hear a viewpoint not presented in the mainstream media,” he said. “They’ve heard the other side.”

Three police cruisers idled near the school’s front entrance, and despite the heckling, officers never entered the library. Police had asked some residents standing outside before the event to put signs away.

Staff reporter Colin Steele contributed to this story.

Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

Zionists Vs Truth -The Wheels of Justice Battle for Andover

By Joe Carr, 6 January, 2007

Last night was one of the most contentions events I’ve ever done. Whoever thought that a simple talk in the library of Andover High School in a small suburb of Massachusetts would make so many headlines.

It all started last October, when six social studies teachers invited the Wheels of Justice Bus Tour to talk to a couple classes. The Wheels of Justice Tour (http://www.justicewheels.org/) brings eyewitness accounts of war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine to communities across the US, including hundreds of high schools. I was on it for several weeks at the end of October.

Despite the tour’s well-regarded reputation for supporting nonviolence and human rights, a group of parents and influential community members pressured the school’s principal, Peter Anderson, to cancel our visit, claiming that we are “anti-Israel” and “support terrorists”, even going so far as to call us a “hate group”. Late the night before we were supposed to speak, Principal Anderson called one of the teachers and told him the talks were off.

We drove the bus to the school the next morning anyway, hoping that the principal could be convinced that this was an unfair violation of the teachers’ rights. But we were unsuccessful, and Principal Anderson, backed up by an Andover Police Officer, asked us to leave.

The teachers’ immediately began organizing, starting with a protest in front of the school that day. The students followed suit with a petition demanding we be allowed to speak. They had 200 signatures by lunch time. Local Zionist groups issued press releases taking credit for blocking us, though Principal Anderson insists that it was his decision.

The teachers union joined with the ACLU and threatened to file a lawsuit against the school district if they didn’t allow us to come back. The school’s lawyers admitted that our case was strong and it could end up costing the district a lot of money if he didn’t bring us back. Anderson caved and bought me a plane ticket.

Zionist forces continued to try and apply pressure behind the scenes. They attempted a court injunction, tried to insist students have permission slips in order to attend, and threatened to hold a picket outside the school. All of these failed, and we had an excellent day of classes.

Because of all the publicity, many more teachers were interested in hearing us speak, so several talks took place in the library with combined classes. All in all, we spoke to over 200 kids in four sessions. The students were very respectful, and asked thoughtful and challenging questions. They seemed to especially like my hip-hop song about Rachel Corrie. Though one student did tape a sign made from notebook paper to an upper-level window that read “YOU SUPPORT TERRISM”.

Because some parents demanded to know what we had said to their kids, the principal agreed to host an evening event that would be open to the public. He clearly had no idea what he was getting into.

By 7pm, Over 300 people were crammed into the library, standing room only, shoulder to shoulder. I counted about 100 Wheels of Justice supporters, 120 Zionists, 80 high school students, nearly all of the administration, three armed Andover police, two TV news cameras, and several photojournalists. You could cut the tension with a knife.

Principal Anderson opened with a call for respect and civility, threatening to cancel the event if there was any disruption. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a prominent Palestinian-American activist, began his talk on Palestinian history. Within 5 minutes, Zionists began screaming at him and calling him a liar. Others yelled at them to be quiet and let Mazin speak. Anderson got up and again threatened to cancel the event, but one of the Zionist leaders took the mic and encouraged her supporters to behave, or otherwise they’d never know what we told their kids.

The event continued with frequent disruption, including threats of violence and other missives. Anderson never removed anyone, even though there were clearly individual provocateurs. Dr Hassan Fouda, an Egyptian-American activist spoke next about his experiences with nonviolent resistance in Palestine. Then I talked about my trip to Iraq, and ended with my song about Rachel Corrie.

The opposition was a little less disruptive during my talk, perhaps because it was on Iraq, perhaps because I’m not Arab-American. Though several people in the back tried to distract me during my song about Rachel by making faces and waving their arms. “These are adults?” I thought.

We then set into the much-anticipated question and answer session, moderated by Principal Anderson, and all hell broke lose. We got through about four questions, if you can call them questions, more like sermons and diatribes. Though the Zionists would not let us answer the questions, and some of our supporters attempted to match their level of disruption in our defense. Eventually, Anderson called it off and abruptly ended the discussion.

However, many people stayed afterwards to talk with us and with each other. The high school newspaper and television station went around interviewing people, and Zionists argued with Mazin and I. Over a dozen students and parents, including Zionists, came up and apologized to me for the way their community behaved. A group of Andover HS students had a small caucus to discuss the event. Student Zionists, supporters, and those on the fence all agreed that this dialogue is important and that they were embarrassed by their parents’ behavior. We weren’t out of there until 10:30pm.

All this was nothing new for me, indeed I’m used to these Zionist whackos having M16s and rocks. Though this was particularly extreme for the US. It reminded me of a talk I did at Washington University in St Louis, where at least half of the 30-student crowed were there to oppose me, including folks wearing Israeli Defense Force hats and T-Shirts. Their onslaught was so intense it caused me to lose my cool and yell, calling the racists. The look in their eyes reminded me of the soldiers and settlers whose violence has so traumatized me. A similar situation could have resulted at MSU in Lansing, MI, where the campus Democrats and Republicans teamed up with a Jewish group to try and pull the funding for my event. They prepared a packet of print-outs from my website and lyrics from my songs attempting to demonstrate that I supported terrorism. When they failed, they vowed to disrupt the event, and campus officials wanted to bring on armed cops. The organizers insisted they could maintain control without police, and they set up an independent student security force stationed at the doors and isles. My fellow speaker and I even got personal body guards! Over 150 students showed up to that event, with about 30 of the opposition who remained calm and quiet. Several more protested outside with signs like “smash hippy leftist scum” and enlarged pictures of me with a hammer and sickle on my forehead.

It never ceases to amaze me how far some people will go to hide the truth. Though it shouldn’t be surprising, considering that lies and propaganda is all the Zionist movement has to stand on. Once enough Americans learn the truth about what our government is supporting in the Middle East, Zionist imperialism is done for.

In the meantime, we’ll keep speaking out, and educating our youth to think for themselves. All this does make me think that I could actually be a high school teacher someday. I am so inspired by the passion of these teachers and students who continue demanding the truth.

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Mazin Qumsiyeh on Andover issue

I just wanted to expand on a few issues beyond what Joe covered. We normally have four people: a bus manager, a bus driver, and two speakers. The physical bus could not come back to the school (it was in the Boston/Andover area giving talks in November) and now it is in Arizona. We had thus three speakers at this high school:

We gave introduction to the bus and where we have been. The bus speakers are all volunteers and we spoke at hundreds of middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities around the country. The bus supports the universal declaration of human rights and supports non-violence. We believe that to address violence (that kills far more native people than occupiers and colonizers) we must address the root causes of injustice, discrimination and racism. I then spoke of the Israel/Palestine situation by highlighting my own experiences, the destruction and ethnic cleansing of 530 Palestinian villages and towns between 1947-1949) and the subsequent nearly six decades of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and theft of land. The shrinking areas allocated to Palestinians now constitute less than 12% of historic Palestine. Zionists flinched when I showed President Carter’s book cover on Israeli apartheid.

Dr. Hassan Fouda then spoke about non-violent resistance and showed many examples of people of various faiths and backgrounds working together for peace (Internationals, Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, etc). Here are just two examples of groups mentioned by Hassan:

• Breaking the silence: Israeli soldiers explaining the orders they are given and giving testimonies of the acts they or their comrades committed in the occupied areas
• Bereaved Parents Circles: Israelis and Palestinians who lost relatives and who chose to grieve and work together for peace rather than for vengeance
• Israel Committee against Home Demolitions

Hassan explained the long history of home demolitions and that Israelis do this to expand settlement areas on the richest Palestinian lands. He also showed a moving clip of an Israeli Jew (Jeff Halper) pleading with soldiers trying to demolish a Palestinian home by telling them that the Israeli laws they are implementing are unjust and should not be obeyed (parallels to the Nuremberg laws in Nazi Germany).

Joe Carr spoke of the atrocities committed in Iraq since the American occupation of 2003 (and before, US led sanctions killed over ½ million Iraqi Children). An excess Iraqi death toll of 655,000 Iraqis in 3.5 years constitutes genocide. He also spoke of the loss of three of his friends: Tom Fox (a member of Christian Peacemaker team who was killed in Iraq), Rachel Corrie (killed by an Israeli soldier driving a US made and paid-for Caterpillar bulldozer) and Tom Hurndall (shot by an Israeli sniper using a US made/paid for gun while Tom and Joe and others were helping Palestinian children in an area where snipers specifically targeted them).

The students and teachers were extremely interested and asked pertinent and good questions in the four presentations we made. In the evening, we were asked to do a public presentation. The Zionist movement was recruited from even nearby towns and cities (one of them in asking the question did not even know where he was). But there was even more people who are supportive of peace and justice. The Zionists tried to shout the presentation down. One person stood and told them it would be good for their cause to “hear what we told the students”. This did not make a big difference and halfway into the Q&A session, the principal called the meeting off. People continued to mill around and engage in conversations. Some of the books we had on the wheels of justice table were stolen while people were busy talking to each other.

They tried various (and expected) strategies to intimidate, silence, discredit, shoot the messenger etc. They had the usual few bad cops and a couple of “good cops” to effect the desired change. All has parallels in Zionist history (1.5 million cluster bombs in Lebanese civilian areas this summer to leave a message while Peres talks as the “good cop”). They were getting frustrated and angry that most of their tricks did not work (and if anything backfired), as people do not like to pushed around/bulldozed. Similarly in Iraq, Lebanon and in Palestine, things are not quite working well for the agenda of apartheid and racism. The more aggressive and violent they are, the poorer they perform to achieve their own objectives of control whether in Iraq, Palestine, or Andover. I personally believe this is because of their biggest Achilles’ heel: that they think in racist/tribalistic fashion (us here-them there as Rabin put it) and are trying to push other Americans to do the same. To them “the other” cannot be human or humanized (let alone have self-determination) or even engaged with in a civil way. Early Zionist founders said it very clearly in the late 19th century and early 20th century “We want to be feared not loved”.

Despite repeated efforts to explain that we are three people with different backgrounds and different political outlooks, they still kept insisting that this is somehow a tribal conflict (we and the teachers who invited us were labeled as “pro-Palestinians” “anti-Israeli”, and even “anti-Semitic”). Despite our talk clearly showing the diversity of groups and people in that part of the world, they ignored all of that and pushed ahead as if the struggle is between Israelis and Palestinians (if it is binary, it is actually between those who support human rights and international law and those who don’t).

Of course I continue to challenge Zionists to public debates (most of them refuse). I am willing to travel for such debates with any leading Zionists (already covered Morton Kline of ZOA, David Harris of AJC, and a few others). Truth after all should be visible and the more light one sheds on things, the more the lies will get exposed. (the religions and non-violent philosophies WE follow teach us to hate the bad deeds but not the misled humans who do the bad deeds). We will continue to speak truth to power without hate or malice to anyone. Stay tuned.

PS: not one of the students opted-out of our talks (even the children of the the tiny minority of parents who demanded that option).

Here are some of the stories about our appearance. I put these in approximate order of unfairness (first unfair progressing totally outrageous/hogwash): Isn’t it amazing that the Eagle Tribune wrote three or four articles on this “controversy” without ever interviewing one of the people from the Wheels of Justice bus tour??!!

• Students will hear disputed speakers, By Douglas Belkin, The Boston Globe
• ADL blocks Israel critics from speaking at school, By Kristin Erekson, The Jewish Advocate
• Wheels of Justice will turn at Andover High, By Colin Steele, Eagle-Tribune
• Naomi Federlander: Why Jcrc Is Reckless And Irresponsible For Dropping The Ball On Somerville
• Protests, injunction threatened against pro-Palestinian speakers, By Colin Steele, Eagle-Tribune

And here are Zionist ratings (unrated :-) “opinion” is too strong a word since most of these folks parrot others in the Zionist/racist camp and cannot come up with their own opinions):

eagletribune.com/puopinion/localstory004094620 nysun.com/article/45006?access=551900 israelforum.com/blogarticle.php?aid=486965 israelforum.com/blogarticle.php?aid=484085 israelforum.com/blogarticle.php?aid=483715 israelforum.com/blogarticle.php?aid=480335

Mazin Qumsiyeh
justicewheels.org
qumsiyeh.org