Evan Harris
Wake Forest announced on Sept. 26 that the speaker event featuring Rabab Abdulhadi will not be held on Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel.
Wake Forest has canceled an Oct. 7 speaker event featuring Rabab Abdulhadi, which faced significant backlash this week. A university-wide email from President Susan Wente and Provost Michelle Gillespie on Thursday morning announced the cancellation of the speaker event and any other event that “is inherently contentious and stands to stoke division in our campus community.”
The speaker event, titled “One Year Since al-Aqsa Flood: Reflections on a Year of Genocide and Resistance” was planned for Oct. 7 and co-sponsored by five departments — Wake Forest University’s Humanities Institute, the department of history, the department of politics & international affairs, the Middle East South Asian studies program and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is unclear if the event will be rescheduled, and administrators did not respond to Old Gold & Black inquiries by the time of publication.
The date marks the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ surprise attack on Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of 1,200 Israelis and the capture of more than 200 hostages. Israel’s counterattack has resulted in the death of over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the official Health Ministry.
After the speaker event was announced, several Jewish students created a petition urging the administration to cancel the event due to claims of Abdulhadi spreading antisemitic rhetoric and supporting Hamas. The petition has gathered over 8,000 signatures at the time of publication.
Abdulhadi is the founding director and senior scholar of the Arab and Muslim ethnicities and diasporas studies program at San Francisco State University. She is also on the advisory board of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The Old Gold & Black reached out to Abdulhadi for comment on the cancellation but did not receive a response by publication.
Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and Campus Watch have denounced Abdulhadi for being antisemitic, pushing an anti-Israel agenda and promoting terrorism. She came under fire for organizing a virtual event on Zoom in 2020 featuring Leila Khaled — a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which, like Hamas, is a designated foreign terrorist organization by the United States. Khaled is well-known for hijacking a commercial airplane in relation to this group in 1969. The virtual event was eventually canceled by Zoom for violating the platform’s terms of service.
Isabelle Laxer, one of the students who organized the petition, shared her approval of the cancellation.
“We are pleased that the University made the right call in canceling the event,” Laxer said. “We have been informed by the administration that, as of right now, it is not being rescheduled.”
In a statement that can be read in full here, Barry Trachtenberg, a member of the faculty seminar that organized the speaker event and Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History, explained that the speaker event should not have been canceled. According to Trachtenberg, it was intended to provide the Wake Forest community with insight into global issues.
“It is an absolute disgrace that the Wake Forest administration has canceled the Oct. 7 talk by Professor Rabab Abdulhadi,” Trachtenberg said. “By doing so, the University has effectively endorsed the lies, racism and Islamophobia spread by her detractors — people who are clearly threatened by her lifelong dedication to exposing the ongoing oppression of Palestinians by the state of Israel.”
He continued: “This event, which was carefully organized by numerous faculty and academic units, was intended to provide expert insight on critical global issues, just as similar discussions have been held in response to other world events, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
The Thursday morning email also announced two university-sponsored events open to the Wake Forest community on Oct. 7. Interfaith Prayers for Peace will be held on Manchester Plaza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a Community Reflection Event will be hosted on the front steps of Wait Chapel at 4:45 p.m.
“At both events, students, faculty and staff are invited to pause, reflect, and write a prayer or light a candle for peace,” the email reads. “At the Community Reflection event, members of the Wake Forest community will offer prayers and readings for peace.”
Prior to the announcement of the cancellation of the speaker event featuring Abdulhadi, Wake Forest Chabad and Hillel announced a memorial event that is to be hosted on Oct. 7 on Manchester Plaza. Andrew Orfaly, student president of Hillel, told the Old Gold & Black the organizations have worked with the University to host the event. As of publication, Laxer, student president of Chabad, and Orfaly still plan to hold the memorial.
“We have not been informed either way as of yet,” Orfaly said. “But in our planning thus far, we have worked meticulously with Student Engagement to ensure that our event is safe and secure.”
It is unclear whether the two events announced in the campus-wide email are the only programming allowed to be hosted on Oct. 7. Administrators did not respond to requests for clarification at the time of publication. The email stated that the decisions made by the University were to help community members support one another across perspectives.
“At Wake Forest, we will emphasize our ability to come together to support one another, holding space for our many different perspectives and experiences,” the email reads.
This is a developing story. The Old Gold & Black will continue to make updates as new information and statements become available.
Correction, Sept. 28: In a previous version of this article, the number of fatalities following the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel was misstated. There were 1,200 reported fatalities and over 200 reported hostages. The story has since been updated.