MARCH 23 • 2023 | 23

Diversity Day Fallout

to represent Michigan’s newly formed 10th Congressional District, 
referred to Zionists as occupiers running an apartheid state and 
accused Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip. In a video recording of 
the presentation shared with the JN, Arraf also denied Israel’s exis-
tence, only referring to the land as Palestine.
In reaction to Arraf’s unexpected anti-Israel message, some 
Jewish students abruptly left the auditorium. 
A Jewish 10th-grader who holds a student leadership position 
and wished to remain anonymous for fear of academic reproach 
or harassment from her peers, said she was shocked by what Arraf 
told the students and left the assembly in tears.
“We were told that we were about to hear from people of differ-
ent backgrounds who would share their personal experiences of 
discrimination from their youth. (Arraf) started at the beginning 
talking about her childhood experiences, but she veered off topic 
very quickly into talking about how Israelis discriminated against 
Palestinians. She just kept mentioning Israeli soldiers; it was very 
odd. 
“Then she started mentioning things about the Jews, that she 
worked for an organization that tried to bring Palestinian and 
Israeli kids together to become friends and play sports, but she 
had to resign because she could not handle the fact that Israeli kids 
would go home to their homes but Palestinian kids went home 
with guns pointed at them by Israeli soldiers who were probably 
the big brothers and sisters of the Israeli kids the Palestinian kids 
just befriended.
”
A video recording sent to the JN confirmed this portion of 
Arraf’s presentation. Arraf, a Christian Palestinian with an Israeli 
Arab father and a graduate of the University of Michigan, is fluent 
in Arabic and Hebrew and worked for the Seeds of Peace organiza-
tion before she resigned and took a more hardline approach. Her 
Facebook feed includes posts supporting BDS, the boycott, divest-
ment and sanctions movement against Israel, and she has said she 
empathizes with the armed resistance movements of the first and 
second Intifadas. 
The sophomore said Arraf’s talk was mislead-
ing, especially for students who have little to 
no knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict. She said what was troubling 
was that the students would accept 
Arraf’s presentation as factual because 
it was offered in an academic setting. 
“The students who don’t have a clue 
(about Israel and the Palestinians) 
who heard her speak were there 
for a school-approved assembly 
talking about diversity,
” she said. “So, 
obviously, they would never think 
that her information was flawed or 
showed bias. The whole thing was 
just dumbfounding to me.
” 

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