After pressure campaign, U of Minnesota reverses course on hiring Israeli-American Professor Raz Segal to head Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies 

July 31, 2024, Minneapolis, MN – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights submitted a public records request seeking information from the University of Minnesota related to its withdrawal of a job offer to an Israeli-American Jewish scholar. The University had selected Professor Raz Segal on June 5th to direct the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS), but it changed course after individuals and organizations raised objections spurred by his writings expressing his professional opinion that Israel was committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

“The University of Minnesota’s decision is an alarm bell not just on this issue of academic freedom but especially in regards to the continued silencing of anyone – students, professors, activists and many others – who speaks out in support of Palestine and against the onoging genocide,” said Ian Head, Manager of the Center for Constitutional Rights’ Open Records Project. “We demand immediate transparency on how the University suddenly switched course from hiring a renowned scholar such as Professor Segal.” 

Prof. Segal is Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide at Stockton University in New Jersey, where he also directs the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies program. His assessment that Israel’s assault on Gaza amounts to genocide is shared by many other prominent scholars and legal experts. But in response to his hiring, two members of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ advisory board resigned. One of them, Bruno Chaouat, a former director of the center, falsely accused Prof. Segal of “justifying Hamas’ atrocities” for opining that Israel was committing genocide. Then the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Minnesota and the Dakotas launched a campaign against Prof. Segal, accusing him of holding “extremist” views. 

The University initially defended Prof. Segal’s hiring, saying that the search committee “enthusiastically recommended” him after a process that included “broad consultation among stakeholders throughout the University.” But on June 10th, only five days after Prof. Segal received the offer, the university’s interim president, Jeff Ettinger, rescinded it. 

“With this decision, Jeff Ettinger and the university’s senior administrators violated my First Amendment rights, attacked academic freedom, and legitimized political interference in a public university’s hiring process,” said Prof. Raz Segal. “This is a very dangerous precedent that now opens the door to other political pressure groups to interfere in hiring processes against candidates because of their professional approaches or arguments. In this way, Ettinger’s decision figures in a broader anti-democratic attack on the academic world. It is, furthermore, particularly terrible, as it aims to shield from criticism the extremely violent Israeli state as it continues its months-long genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza.” 

On October 13, 2023, Prof. Segal published an article arguing that Israel had launched a genocidal campaign in Gaza, citing the explicit eliminationist rhetoric of Israel's leaders, war cabinet ministers, and senior army officers. Since then, targeting schools, hospitals, refugee camps, houses of worship, apartment buildings, and infrastructure, Israel has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, injured more than 90,000, forcibly displaced 2 million, and pushed large segments of Gaza into famine. 

In November, Palestinians represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights sued President Biden and his aides for enabling Israel’s genocide. While dismissing the case on jurisdictional grounds, the federal judge said Israel’s assault “plausibly” constitutes genocide, echoing the historic ruling of the International Court of Justice. 

The Center for Constitutional Rights seeks, among other records, all the administration’s and faculty’s relevant communications with the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies board members who resigned and the JCRC. Minnesota law requires the university to provide the information in “an appropriate and prompt manner.”