Activists and educators host Palestinian scholar on Oct. 7 after Wake Forest University cancels lecture

Around 100 people gathered inside the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem Monday evening to listen to a reflection on one year of the Israel-Hamas war from a Palestinian perspective.

The speaker, Rabab Abdulhadi, is a professor and founding director of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program at San Francisco State University. 

She said that history for Palestinian people did not begin on Oct. 7 last year with the Hamas-led attack on Israel that resulted in around 1,200 deaths. But that for over a century, Palestine has been colonized and its people, “erased.” More than 41,000 Palestinians were killed in the last year alone.

“No Palestinian will believe that there isn't a project of erasure or genocide, because when we look at Gaza, all the children, all the future generations, are being wiped out," she said. "And every time there is a war, children are being eliminated more and more so, where is the new generation? Where is the future generation?”

Abdulhadi was originally scheduled to speak at Wake Forest University on Oct. 7, but the administration called it off. In a message to the Wake Forest community, University President Susan Wente and Provost Michele Gillespie said canceling the lecture was a “conscious decision not to host events on this day that are inherently contentious and stand to stoke division in our campus community.”

The university opted to commemorate the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack with an interfaith prayer for peace and a community reflection. It also allowed an event organized by Jewish students to take place, which invited the community to “pray for Israel and lasting peace.” 

Professor and Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History Barry Trachtenberg worked with community organizers to host Abdulhadi off-campus after her lecture was canceled. 

“To say that we cannot hear the voices of Palestinians, that this is a day only to mourn Jewish lives, is nothing less than obscene, and a complete betrayal of the academic mission of our university," Trachtenberg said.

The issue has gained national attention with organizations like PEN America, the Middle East Studies Association and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression urging the university to reverse its decision last week. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.