Is it possible to remove the hand cursor that appears when hovering over a link? (or keep it set as the normal pointer)

That's exactly what cursor: pointer; is supposed to do.

If you want the cursor to remain normal, you should be using cursor: default

Using inline styling use <a href="your link here" style="cursor:default">your content here</a>. See this example

Alternatively use css. See this example.

This solution is cross-browser compatible.

Try this

To Remove Hand Cursor

a.link {
    cursor: default;
}