allowed to blast hate speech to the entire
school?”
On the day after the assemblies, the student
stopped in a girl’s restroom between classes.
In a locked handicapped stall, she noticed that
several girls had gathered and were having a
conversation about what had happened at the
diversity assemblies. She heard them whisper-
ing things about Jews.
When another friend entered the bathroom,
the student whispered to her to listen, and the
friend confirmed what the student had heard.
“We both heard them swearing that ‘these
Jews are blowing everything out of proportion.
’
During lunch, we went to the office to report
the incident about girls swearing about Jews
and saying derogatory things about Jews,
”
she said. “We reported it word for word to
the office attendant who took our statement,
and there were several other students there to
report additional incidents at the same time.
“Then the attendant told me, ‘Please don’t
share this around the school. Please don’t tell a
bunch of people. We don’t want it to be blown
out of proportion.
’ There are other kids who
were also confronted with hateful incidents. It
was just a very hectic day at school.
”
When the JN informed school officials
about this incident, Bloomfield Hills Director
of Communications Karen Huyghe said the
matter is under investigation by the district’s
Administrator of Public Safety Patrick Sidge.
Sophomore Noah Freedland attended the
first assembly of the day. At first, he said he
appreciated Arraf describing her childhood,
growing up with an Arabic name and chang-
ing it to Heidi in grammar school to make her
feel less different.
“I thought she was going to stay on that
path, but then she kind of transitioned into
talking about Palestine,
” he said. “Then she
started talking about how she worked with
Palestinian children hanging out with Israeli
children, and I thought that was really power-
ful and like a cool thing.
“But then she did a 180 and said the
Palestinian children had to go through hours
of checkpoints with guns pointed at them by
the brothers and sisters of the other Israeli
kids.
“That’s when I realized what she was saying
was not true,
” he said. “Yes, there are check-
points, but they are there for security reasons.
Then, she started talking about how Israel is
committing genocide against Palestinians,
which scared me a little because I didn’t want

people thinking that Israelis and Jews are bad
people who are oppressors, when they have
been oppressed all throughout history.
”
Freshman Benjamin Bak attended the third
assembly. He said the person introducing
Arraf said, “Our next speaker, Huwaida Arraf,
will be speaking about Israel’s illegal blockade
of the Gaza Strip.
”
“Israel is blockading the Strip to keep
Hamas from coming through and murdering
Israelis,
” said Bak, who has family in Israel,
family serving in the Israel Defense Forces
and a set of grandparents who were Holocaust
survivors. He is knowledgeable about the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict by spending much
time in Israel with his Israeli family and then
through an online course and from hours of
research and self-study.
“What she said was completely biased and
wrong,
” he told the JN. “She was telling us all
that Israel is the oppressor and she accused
Israel as being an apartheid state — that’s just
false. She also said Judaism and the Israeli
government are not the same, but, in one of
her speeches, she called it the ‘Jewish Israeli’
government.
”
When Arraf started giving out biased infor-
mation, Bak got up and left the auditorium.
But he caught up with Arraf at the end of the
day when she was alone talking with another
woman and the school’s diversity team was on
the other side of the auditorium.
“I decided to confront her about the Israel-
Palestinian conflict and other points she made
that were false,
” he said, saying they talked for
about 10 minutes. “She just kept reiterating the
same anti-Israel propaganda.
“With Jewish politicians in Michigan
threatened, the incident at Temple Beth El’s
parking lot and the fact that antisemitism is on
the rise, this is triggering antisemitism at the
high school, and it’s all very scary for Jewish
kids.
”

ADL REPORTS ON ARRAF
Ironically, the March 14 program was an
outgrowth of an initiative that BHHS began
last September with the ADL. According to
Regional ADL Director Carolyn Normandin,
ADL Michigan trained faculty and some stu-
dent leaders in its No Place for Hate program.
According to the organizations’ website,
No Place for Hate is being used by more than
80 Michigan schools as a student-driven initia-
tive that empowers schools and communities
to promote respect for individual and group
differences, while challenging prejudice and
bigotry.
Normandin stressed emphatically, however,
that ADL had no knowledge that Arraf had
been invited to speak at the high school and
the organization would have never recom-
mended her as a panelist.
In fact, in numerous reports, the ADL has
categorized Arraf as a divisive disruptor to
coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians
through her activism on American col-
lege campuses. She also is a co-founder of
the pro-Palestine International Solidarity
Movement.
In its 2012 report, for example, the ADL
said Arraf, who founded the Free Gaza
Movement, described Israel as a “colonial
apartheid regime” and alleged that its laws are
designed to discriminate against Palestinians.
She also spoke out against Israel’s blockade
of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, calling it
“collective punishment.
”
On her Twitter feed, Arraf continuously
expresses support for a BDS campaign against
Israel — most recently praising the mayor of
Barcelona, Spain, for breaking all institutional
and academic ties with Tel Aviv. Her feed also
indicates she supports a one-state solution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — which would
eliminate the Jewish state — on the grounds
that a two-state solution doesn’t recognize
Palestinian right of return.
“Students come up with projects for the
(No Place for Hate) program and, last year at
BHHS, this program went off without a hitch,
”
Normandin said. “This program was supposed
to focus on the guests’ experiences of discrim-
ination in high school. This person completely
co-opted the entire program, stood on her
soapbox and made the day about her politics.
She intentionally sowed division among stu-
dents in a very major way.
”



Contributing Editor Keri Guten Cohen added to this

report.

OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 25

26 | MARCH 23 • 2023

“THIS PERSON
COMPLETELY CO-OPTED
THE ENTIRE PROGRAM
… AND MADE THE DAY
ABOUT HER POLITICS.
SHE INTENTIONALLY
SOWED DIVISION AMONG
STUDENTS IN A VERY
MAJOR WAY.”

— CAROLYN NORMANDIN, ADL