The University of Minnesota paused the hiring of a professor who wrote that Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza after Oct. 7 was “a textbook case of genocide” to head the school’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS), Jewish Insider has learned.
The pause, which has not yet been publicly announced by the university, came on Monday evening after two members of the center’s advisory board resigned in protest on Friday.
“The assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes,” Raz Segal, an Israeli associate professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, wrote in the Jewish Currents on Oct. 13. “I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for the University of Minnesota told JI that the director selection process was put on hold “to allow an opportunity to determine next steps.”
“The assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes,” Raz Segal, an Israeli associate professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, wrote in the Jewish Currents on Oct. 13. “I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians,” he wrote.
Literally a fucking expert on genocides…
It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of a fascists core group. If you disagree with them in any way you become an enemy
Everyone should be incredibly concerned when their political representatives demand 100% loyalty and attack anyone that disagrees with their actions and labels them an enemy.
A government that refuses to accept criticism from its own members is either facist or walking down that path
It’s the same with that one rabbi who’s been labeled antisemitic because he’s against the genocide of Palestinians.
Edit: this dude:
Eg. the Canary Mission has labeled him as an antisemite who trivializes the Holocaust because he thinks that in Canada the genocide of First Nations people would be important to teach more about instead of focusing on the Holocaust
That reminds me of two orthodox Jewish guys who were arrested on charges of antisemitic hate, by the metropolitan police, for burning an Israeli flag.
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Equating Israel with wider Jewish-ness is actaully antisemitic, unlike burning a flag. So, the only antisemitism there was conducted by the police. The met keeping up its proud tradition of institutional racism there.
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These boys are going to get hauled up in front of a judge on antisemitism charges, only to be asked swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth
On the fucking Torah
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Never heard of Canary Mission before, but they’re quite an interesting covert Israeli operation.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/canary-mission-israel-covert-operations/
If this goes to court does the university need to prove its not a genocide?
They havent hired him yet, so theres nothing to sue over
Sadly, I don’t think there’s any way this goes to court. Opinion on genocide is not a protected class, and as long as it’s not a protected class, a company in the US can decide not to hire you for essentially any reason.
It do.
Would it? If anything, this would be a freedom of speech case and truth does not have to be determined in those cases.
However, I also don’t think that the reason he wasn’t hired was a reason he could sue for.
This, obviously, doesn’t excuse what happened. I just don’t think there would be any good legal standing for a lawsuit. But I’m also not a lawyer.
It is a genocide though.
The USA has been colonized by Zionists
Minnesotan here. This has obviously been in the local news a lot.
The story is that the university received some complaints saying the university shouldn’t be hiring an anti-semite in this position; that coupled with the board resignations caused the university to pause the hire to give time for a review.
I don’t know how this will play out. The university is between a rock and a hard place; if you think they won’t be absolutely blasted if they proceed, I think you don’t understand the amount of heat that can and will be brought to bear. On the other hand, Dr. Segal is extremely qualified for the job and had indeed already been extended - and had accepted - an offer for the position.
Defenders of Israel’s actions still have far more firepower and political capital than the people who accept the UN’s findings that what Israel is doing qualifies as war crimes and genocide. I do not envy the university; they lose no matter what they do. I think they’ll take more damage if they continue and hire Dr. Segal, but I hope they take the ethically right path and being him in board.
What’s the hard place between genocide and not-genocide? Since when did a university give a shit about what a bunch of rich blowhards bloviate about?
You don’t know much about how universities work. I don’t mean that as a dis; I don’t know how else to say it.
Universities very much depend on donors. They depend on alumni. They depend on people going to their football games. This is one of the most succinct charts I could find:
[^1]
39% of a public higher ed school’s income comes from donors and alumns. Someone’s doing the math right now and trying to figure out what percentage of their donors are going to stop their donations to the school; how many of the rich alumni will terminate their grant plans. I doubt if any are expecting aniki@lemm.ee to step in and make up for the lost millions. And, when they’re shitting down programs because they can’t afford to run them anymore, or they’re giving out fewer grants to kids, those same people will be there to point the finger at the administrators and accuse them of causing the loss of revenue because of this decision.
You can be righteously furious all you want, but there will be a cost to the intuition. Personally, I’m getting sick of people who, like yourself, ignore the sheer power of Israeli lobby in the US. It’s not even a conspiracy theory; Israel, and people who support Israel in the US, have invested a lot of time and effort into building effective lobbying organizations at all levels. And the Palestinians have not. Mainly because Palestine has never been able to afford to, but also since the US is clearly in Israel’s pocket, there’s also not much political will to follow suit.
I hope they make the right decision and hire him, but it’s stupid to think it’s an easy decision. Doing so will likely cost people their jobs. Or did you completely miss the recent furor over university presidents being called to resign because they didn’t crack down hard enough on pro-Palestinian statements on campus? Fuck, even the new outlets labeled it “not taking a strong enough stance on anti-semitism.” Supporting Palestine is being defined as anti semitism.
Christ, take a look around, man. Taking a stand against the genocide in Palestine will you get crucified.
[^1] https://www.case.org/resources/giving-us-colleges-and-universities-increased-125-fiscal-year-2022
Another good source is Statista, but it’s harder to directly relate the categories to donations.
Thanks for the explanation, that’s really shit, unfortunately