Wake Forest University invites Hamas-defending academic on anniversary of Oct. 7 terrorist attack
On Oct. 7, Abdulhadi wrote that the Palestinians who murdered innocent Jewish civilians were ‘merely defending themselves.’
Khaled also seemed to suggest that Hamas is treating its Israeli hostages humanely.
Wake Forest University (WFU) in North Carolina recently announced that it will host Rabab Abdulhadi, an outspoken anti-Israel activist who has made several controversial comments about the Jewish state, on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.
The talk is titled “One Year since al-Aqsa Flood: Reflections on a Year of Genocide and Resistance.”
Abdulhadi, a Palestinian professor working for San Francisco State University, has made controversial statements excusing the Oct. 7 massacre and blaming the Jewish state for the atrocity. Shortly after the Hamas attack, she wrote that Palestinians “are merely defending themselves” and that “it‘s worth remembering how vicious colonists act when the colonized dare #breaktheirChains from @Palestine . . . No innocent bystanders here.”
Seriously @IlhanMN @Ilhan? “Senseless” #PalestineUnderAttack are merely defending themselves. Are you saying that #Palestinians should be exceptionalized from the right to defend themselves against colonial & racist violence? Check your facts!#FreePalestine #IsraeliCrimes https://t.co/epwAV20fwM
— Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi رباب ابراهيم عبد الهادي (@AbdulhadiRabab) October 8, 2023
On June 8, Abdulhadi retweeted an X post that claimed Hamas is treating its Israeli hostages well, as opposed to Israel allegedly putting Palestinians “in a concentration camp.”
Hamas has tortured, executed, and otherwise abused its hostages, according to multiple reports.
In 2020, she voiced apparent support for acts of radical Islamic terrorism, proclaiming that “[w]e really idolize somebody like Leila Khaled, somebody who actually stands up for herself, speaks for herself, actually goes to a plane and hijacks it.”
Leila Khaled is a terrorist and plane hijacker who previously operated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian.
In a 2022 post X, Abdulhadi equated Zionism with white supremacy, stating that “it’s impossible not to see parallels in how Zionist settler colonialism kills Indigenous Palestinians & US white supremacist settler colonialism kills Black, Indigenous and other 3rd world/people of color.”
Isabelle Laxer, president of Chabad at WFU, said that she and other students strongly opposed the decision to invite Abdulhadi to campus.
“We support free speech, we encourage the university to host people with a variety of different viewpoints, to share different perspectives, encourage and foster dialogue on our campus. However about a week ago they put up posters for this event with antisemitic and pro-terrorist language,” Laxer said.
Following the announcement that Abdulhadi was scheduled to come to campus, concerned students created an online petition to cancel the event. “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,” the students wrote. As of publishing time, the petition has more than 8,500 signatures.
“It’s incredibly disheartening to see this happening on a day that saw the greatest loss of Jewish life since the holocaust,” Laxer said.
When asked about Abdulhadi’s upcoming visit to WFU, a university spokesperson framed the event as an exercise in free speech, stating that “[s]tudents can engage with a wide range of ideas, including those they support and those they oppose.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Wake Forest University and Rabab Abdulhadi for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.