..."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."...

First came a eupeptic letter from a principal of Fieldston School. It began:

Dear Upper School Parents,

I am writing to let you know about an assembly we have planned for Thursday, February 23rd. We have invited Professor Muhammed Muslih of Long Island University and Associate Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh of Yale to speak to the Upper School students and faculty about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both Professor Muslih and Associate Professor Qumsiyeh are Palestinians. Professor Muslih will speak for 10 minutes in favor of a two-state solution, and Professor Qumsiyeh will speak for 10 minutes in favor of a one-state solution, and for the balance of the assembly they will entertain questions from the audience.

Several days later another letter followed. It read:

Dear Upper School Parents:

I am writing to inform you that we have decided not to go forward with the February 23rd assembly on the Israeli-Palestine question. As important as we all believe this issue is and as much as we hoped for from the assembly and the accompanying activities, the events of the last several days have persuaded me that the assembly forum we chose to launch this discussion was not appropriate given the sensitivity and complexity of the issue.

I appreciate the many thoughtful phone calls and e-mails I received in response to my recent letter. Many of you who were most concerned about our plan framed your concerns in the most positive and constructive terms, and I deeply regret the unhappiness that my letter and support for this project has caused you.

Sincerely,
John Love
Upper School Principal

What caused Fieldston to reverse engines so dramatically? “Their complacency got punctured,” says a Fieldston parent. “This is a school that distributed condoms to 15-year-olds without much protest from parents, and had a Transgender Day with no ruckus at all. So they must have thought they could get by with Dr. Qumsiyeh. Wrong.”

Very wrong, in fact. Not long after the announcement reached the upper school parents, Love began to receive phone calls and e-mails protesting Fieldston’s decision. A letter from Jerome Gordon, a retired banker and Jewish activist, was one of the most acute. He noted that Qumsiyeh, a geneticist, hadn’t been at Yale for more than a year—and that he wasn’t a professor when he was there. The doctor was, however, very active as a Palestinian extremist with a gift for invective. Indeed, one of his articles, distributed at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, wound up getting withdrawn following protests about his arguments for divestment from companies doing business with Israel...