To the Administration of Wake Forest University,

We, the undersigned members of the Wake Forest University community, are writing to express our strong concern and opposition to the event scheduled for October 7th with speaker Rabab Abdulhadi, a self-proclaimed Hamas sympathizer. Abdulhadi is a San Francisco State University professor who has publicly threatened Jewish students and has had similar events canceled due to violations of Zoom’s, YouTube’s, and Facebook’s terms of service. She has also publicly supported and celebrated terrorists, some of whom are on the FBI Watchlist, as well as spreading blood libels about Jews. The event, titled “One Year since al-Aqsa Flood: Reflections on a Year of Genocide and Resistance,” refers to the mission carried out by Hamas on October 7th, resulting in the most significant loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust. The title equates the murder, rape, and kidnapping of innocent Jewish and Arab life on October 7th to resistance.

While we strongly support free speech on campus, we believe that hosting a speaker who promotes terrorism and espouses hate speech against Jewish students is a failure to protect all members of the Wake Forest community. Choosing to host this event on October 7th fosters a hostile environment and detracts from the importance of allowing students to feel safe while mourning the anniversary of these atrocious attacks.

The event is sponsored by Wake Forest University’s Humanities Institute, Department of History, Department of Politics & International Affairs, Middle East South Asian Studies Program, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is crucial that Wake Forest upholds its values and ensures that speakers who promote hatred and violence are not given a platform on our campus. Jewish student leaders have made several attempts to address these concerns with the administration, only to be dismissed.

Wake Forest University prides itself on the motto “Pro Humanitate,” yet hosting a speaker whose beliefs directly oppose this core tenet undermines the University's commitment to humanity and respect. We urge the administration to align with their own values and cancel this event.

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