NEW YORK (NewsNation) — A famed cultural and community center in New York City canceled a reading by a Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese-American professor over his support of Palestinians.

Viet Thanh Nguyen said on Saturday a Jewish organization in New York canceled a reading he was due to give at the 92nd Street Y on Friday without explanation, a day after he said he signed an open letter condemning Israel’s “indiscriminate violence” against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Their language was ‘postponement,’ but no reason was given, no other date was offered, and I was never asked,” Nguyen wrote on Instagram. “So, in effect, cancellation. Some people in social media comments say they heard it was a bomb threat. I’ve heard no such thing from 92Y staff.”

In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for the 92nd Street Y confirmed it postponed the event, citing Nguyen’s stance on Israel as well as the Oct. 7 attack by militants of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and continued holding of hostages, which it said “has absolutely devastated the community.”

“Given the public comments by the invited author on Israel and this moment, we felt the responsible course of action was to postpone the event while we take some time to determine how best to use our platform and support the entire 92NY community,” the spokesperson said.

The ongoing war in Israel has reignited tension in the U.S. between those who support Israel and those who support an independent Palestine.

Nineteen people, including three juveniles, were arrested when protesters clashed with New York Police officers during a pro-Palestine rally in Brooklyn Saturday, police said.

More than 5,000 people waved flags and chanted through the streets of Bay Ridge to support Palestine, the partially recognized sovereign state. Palestine is not a country recognized by the United States or the United Nations.

Thousands of people in Muslim countries and beyond held demonstrations on Friday in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They called for an end to Israel’s blockade and airstrikes following a brutal incursion into southern Israel by fighters from the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.

Demonstrators headed to Israeli military checkpoints after Friday prayers in the West Bank and gathered in Iraq at the country’s border crossing with Jordan; in Jordan itself; in locations across Egypt; in Turkey’s capital Ankara and its most populous city of Istanbul; and in Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco and South Africa.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators also marched through London to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NewsNation affiliate WPIX in New York contributed to this report.