{"id":578673,"date":"2026-08-08T15:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578673\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:28:10","slug":"israeli-historian-who-called-gaza-war-genocide-receives-250k-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578673\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli historian who called Gaza war \u2018genocide\u2019 receives $250K settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Israeli historian who described Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as genocide days after the October 7 massacre will receive $250,000 from the University of Minnesota after the institution withdrew an offer for him to lead its Holocaust and genocide studies center, The Guardian reported.<\/p>\n

Prof. Raz Segal was selected in June 2024 to head the university\u2019s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies after a search committee recommended him almost unanimously and praised his candidacy. Five days after he accepted the offer, however, the university reversed course, saying it had received additional \u201cperspectives\u201d from members of the community.<\/p>\n

\"\u05e4\u05e8\u05d5\u05e4'<\/a>\"\u05e4\u05e8\u05d5\u05e4'<\/p>\n

Prof. Raz Segal <\/p>\n

(Photo: The Association for Middle East Women’s Studies)<\/p>\n

The controversy centered on an article Segal published on October 13, 2023, six days after the Hamas-led massacre in Israel, in which he described Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as \u201ca textbook case of genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics accused Segal of justifying Hamas\u2019 crimes in the article, whose headline used that phrase. Segal rejected the accusation, and in the piece itself described the October 7 attack as a \u201cmass killing\u201d and a war crime.<\/p>\n

More than two years after his appointment was withdrawn, Segal and the university reached a settlement last week. The $250,000 payment does not constitute an admission of liability by the university, which did not respond to The Guardian\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Segal said he hoped the settlement would encourage other academics who had faced professional consequences for criticizing Israel to \u201cfight back.\u201d Segal was among the earliest scholars to describe Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza as genocide. \u201cI really hoped I was wrong, but unfortunately, I wasn\u2019t,\u201d he said recently.<\/p>\n

\"\u05e4\u05e8\u05e9\u05e0\u05d5\u05ea<\/a>\"\u05e4\u05e8\u05e9\u05e0\u05d5\u05ea<\/p>\n

Prof. Segal\u2019s article, published on October 13 <\/p>\n

(Photo: ‘JewishCurrents’)<\/p>\n

According to The Guardian, internal documents obtained by Segal showed that his appointment became the target of pressure from pro-Israel activists, lawmakers who contacted university administrators and donors who threatened to withdraw financial support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow someone like Raz Segal, a clear anti-Zionist, to lead the Holocaust Studies department,\u201d one donor wrote to the chair of the university\u2019s board of regents, according to the report. \u201cThere are many who will cancel their commitments to donate to the university if this issue is not addressed,\u201d the donor added.<\/p>\n

Segal said hundreds of nearly identical messages were sent to the university opposing his appointment, which he argued indicated a coordinated campaign. The university initially considered defending the decision to hire Segal but backed away as pressure intensified, according to the report.<\/p>\n

In one internal exchange, a senior communications official reportedly warned that defending Segal was \u201ctoo risky.\u201d A sentence stating that the university did not use \u201cpolitical litmus tests\u201d in hiring was later removed from a draft response to the media.<\/p>\n

Segal, who is Jewish and the grandson of four Holocaust survivors, said university administrators effectively decided that he was \u201cthe wrong kind of Israeli and the wrong kind of Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had hoped to be reinstated to the position rather than receive financial compensation, but was told that returning to the role was not an option. Segal is currently a full professor at Stockton University in New Jersey, where he directs the graduate program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Israeli historian who described Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as genocide days after the October 7 massacre will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-578673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}