WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — An event planned to feature a pro-Palestinian speaker on Oct. 7 at Wake Forest University has been canceled after fierce backlash from Jewish student groups at the university .
The event was set to feature Rabab Abdulhadi , a San Francisco State University professor and founding director of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program, as well as co-founding editorial board member of the Islamaphobia Studies Journal.
Abdulhadi was scheduled to speak at an event entitled “One year since al-Aqsa Flood: Reflections on a Year of Genocide and Resistance” on Oct. 7, exactly one year after Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization , launched an attack on Israel killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping hundreds of others.
On Thursday, University President Susan Wente and Provost Michele Gillespie issued a statement announcing that the event was canceled.
Wente and Gillespie said that the university would not host events “that are inherently contentious and stand to stoke division in our campus community.”