Called IDF actions 'genocide' - and his appointment was cancelled: the compensation the Israeli historian will receive
Professor Raz Segal was chosen to head the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. But 5 days later, the university backtracked under pressure from donors, lawmakers, and pro-Israel organizations, after it emerged that on October 13 he wrote that Israel's actions in Gaza were a "textbook case of genocide." He will be compensated with $250,000 in a settlement agreement.
An Israeli historian will receive $250,000 in compensation from an American university after it cancelled his appointment as head of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, once it emerged that less than a week after the October 7 massacre he called Israel's actions in Gaza "genocide." This was reported in the British "Guardian."
Professor Raz Segal was selected for this position at the University of Minnesota in June 2024, after the search committee recommended him almost unanimously and praised his candidacy. However, five days after he accepted the offer, the university backtracked, claiming it had received additional "perspectives" from members of the community. The cancellation occurred after it emerged that in an article Segal published on October 13, 2023, he called what was happening in Gaza a "textbook case of genocide."
His critics claimed that in the article, which was titled as such, he justified Hamas's crimes, but Segal rejected the claim, and in the article itself described the attack as a "mass massacre" and a war crime. Last week, more than two years after his appointment to the position was cancelled, the parties reached a settlement agreement. The payment does not constitute an admission of liability by the university, which did not respond to the "Guardian's" request. Segal said the sum should encourage academics who have been punished for criticizing Israel to "fight back":
"I truly hope I was wrong, but unfortunately - I was not wrong."
The British newspaper wrote that internal documents obtained by Segal revealed a pressure campaign against his appointment by pro-Israel activists, lawmakers who contacted the university administration, and donors who threatened to stop transferring funds.
"We cannot allow someone like Raz Segal, a clear anti-Zionist, to head the Holocaust studies department," one donor wrote to the chair of the university's board of trustees. "There are many who will cancel their commitments to donate to the university if this issue is not addressed."
According to Segal, hundreds of messages with almost identical wording were sent to the university in protest of his selection, something he claimed indicated a coordinated campaign. Initially, the university considered defending the choice of Segal, but as the pressure increased, it retreated. In one correspondence, a senior official in the communications department warned that it was "too dangerous" to defend him, and a sentence stating that the university does not use "political tests" in hiring was deleted from a draft response to the media.
Segal, a Jew and grandson of four Holocaust survivors, said that the university administration decided he was the "wrong kind of Israeli and the wrong kind of Jew." According to him, he had hoped to get the position back rather than financial compensation, but it was made clear to him that this option was not on the table. Today, Segal serves as a tenured professor at Stockton University in New Jersey, where he heads a master's program in Holocaust and genocide studies.
