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ISM High School Visits The tour's visits to high schools around the country have been among its most problematic. Presenters have misled impressionable audiences by promoting unbalanced views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, often comparing the plight of Palestinians to the suffering of Native Americans during the European colonization of North America. They also refuse to acknowledge that any Palestinians engage in terrorism and equate Israel alternately with apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.
The tour was scheduled to appear at Andover High School in Massachusetts at the invitation of six teachers on October 27, 2006. The appearance was canceled by school officials, who were provided with a background briefing about the tour's history, including its previous visits to high schools around the country, where presenters promoted distinctly unbalanced views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Andover High School principal Peter Anderson later reversed the decision and the tour addressed students on January 5, 2007, as part of a series of three forums, "each featuring a different perspective on Middle East conflicts," Anderson said in a statement.
In response to the controversy surrounding the school's decision to cancel the tour's appearance, Ron Francis, one of the six teachers who organized the visit, called the result "political discrimination tinged with racism," adding that, "Zionists, by that I mean people who support a Jewish privileged state, the Zionists don't want people to be educated about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Ceylon Mooney, the tour's co-coordinator and one of its booking agents, has described the bus as "a mobile classroom," that "comes complete with teachers and a wide range of instructional materials: videos, photographs, essays, fact sheets, etc."
A flier with information about the tour's school programming, posted on the Voices in the Wilderness Web site, reads: "At high schools, we often speak to assemblies, show slides/videos or PowerPoint, and visit classrooms…either going to the classroom or having classes visit us in a reserved room is the norm, but we are flexible."
Mazin Qumsiyeh indicates that tour speakers have spoken "to literally hundreds of schools (including elementary, middle, and high schools) in 48 states in the U.S."
Among the tour's other high school stops: Brookfield High School in Connecticut on November 6, 2006. A member of the history department organized the appearance, which featured Mazin Qumsiyeh and focused almost exclusively on the Israel-Palestinian issue. The presentation was attended by students over four periods during the school day as a part of their history and social studies classes.
Newtown High School in Connecticut on November 23, 2004. Approximately 50 students and teachers listened to tour speakers, including Al-Awda founder Qumsiyeh. "I would compare this Palestinian/Israeli situation with the Native Americans here in America when the colonials first came," Qumsiyeh told the students. "The Native Americans were driven from their natural homes and led to live on small reservations. Huge populations were wiped out." He went on to say, "There are approximately four million Jews living in America. Five billion dollars in military support goes to Israel every year. The American government is clearly behind Israel – at the expense of the Palestinians."
In April 2004, the tour visited North Andover High School in Massachusetts. The school's principal invited Rabbi Robert Goldstein, of Andover's Temple Emanuel, to offer an alternative perspective.
During an appearance at Ukiah High School in California on December 4, 2003, students were able to visit the bus during their lunch break and after school. They heard from ISM volunteer Lauren Anzaldo, and from John Farrell, a former high school teacher and member of Voices in the Wilderness. Anzaldo discussed how Palestinians are affected by the occupation and said that Israeli soldiers "come in the middle of the night and shoot at schools -- during the day too -- security guards are posted on campuses."
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