Wake Forest Cancels Anti-Israel Professor Speaker Scheduled for Oct. 7
Wake Forest University announced on Sept. 26 that they are canceling an upcoming talk on Oct. 7 featuring San Francisco State University Professor Rabab Abdulhadi.
National Review had reported that Abdulhadi wrote in response to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) post on X condemning the Oct. 7 massacre as “senseless violence”: “Seriously @IlhanMN? ‘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!” Her talk at the university was titled “One Year since al-Aqsa Flood: Reflections on a Year of Genocide and Resistance.” A petition launched by students at the university calling on the university to cancel the talk had accumulated almost 10,000 signatures, per National Review.
University President Susan Wente and Provost Michele Gillespie wrote in an email to the community that they “made the conscious decision not to host events on this day that are inherently contentious and stand to stoke division in our campus community. Thus, we have informed the academic units sponsoring Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi’s campus lecture on October 7 that it cannot take place.”
Jewish Students Decline Admissions Offers to Columbia, Barnard Over Antisemitism
The Columbia Daily Spectator spoke to multiple Jewish students who declined their acceptance offers to Columbia University and Barnard College due to concerns about antisemitism on the campuses.
One student, Sarit Greenwood, declined to attend Barnard after a couple of her Jewish friends urged against her attending the school, as one of her friends had her Star of David necklace ripped off and the other, an Israeli, was afflicted with deteriorating mental health as a result of the campus climate. Another student, Raquel Schnall, deferred her Barnard acceptance and will be serving in the Israeli military instead due to the anti-Israel encampment on campus and the police’s subsequent clearing of it. Other students had similar stories.
UCSF Prof Reportedly Targeted Israeli Student on Social Media
UC San Francisco (UCSF) Professor of Internal Medicine Dr. Rupa Marya reportedly authored a post on X that targeted an Israeli student.
Marya’s post had stated, according to The Jewish News of Northern California: “Med students at UCSF are concerned that a first year student from Israel is in their class. They’re asking if he participated in the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF before matriculating into medical school in CA. How do we address this in our professional ranks?” Marya has since deleted her X account. Chancellor Sam Hawgood said in a Sept. 23 statement, “Targeting any member of the UCSF community — especially in a way that fosters hostility or discrimination — will not be tolerated. I have taken immediate action to address the situation.”
Cornell Student’s Visa Canceled Over Involvement in Anti-Israel Protest Disrupting Career Fair
A student at Cornell University had his student visa revoked over his involvement in an anti-Israel protest that disrupted the university’s career fair on Sept. 18.
The Cornell Daily Sun reported that U.K. graduate student Momodou Taal received an email from the university saying that he has been barred from campus after he engaged in “escalating, egregious behavior and a disregard for the University policies” over his participation in the protest; he had previously been suspended for his participation in the anti-Israel encampment on campus during the spring. Taal told the Sun that that the university “targeted a visible Black person of the Islamic faith,” claiming that he was only at the protest for five minutes and had given a speech beforehand. The university declined to comment to the Sun on the matter.
House Education Committee Says Harvard Didn’t Discipline Most Students Involved in Antisemitic Protests
The House Education and Workforce Committee announced in a Sept. 26 press release that they obtained documents showing that Harvard University “failed to discipline the overwhelming majority of those involved in the protests.”
The press release also stated that in the timeframe between the Oct. 7 massacre and the anti-Israel encampment in the spring, “Harvard failed to impose formal discipline on any students for antisemitic conduct violations, including the occupation of a campus building and the disruption of classes with bullhorns” and that “the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) Committee on Rights and Responsibilities declined to punish five students who participated in the encampment in violation of University policies and instead ‘encourage[d] [them] to continue engaging in meaningful discourse, provided that all future activities are conducted in a manner consistent with HGSE and University policies.’”
“The only thing [Harvard] administrators accomplished is appeasing radical students who have almost certainly returned to campus emboldened and ready to repeat the spring semester’s chaos,” House Education Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said in a statement. “Harvard must change course immediately.”