Raz Segal Wins $250,000 UMN Settlement Over Rescinded Job Offer

1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 6

$250,000 ended Raz Segal’s dispute with the University of Minnesota more than two years after it withdrew his offer to lead its Holocaust and Genocide Studies center; the deal does not admit wrongdoing.
Emails obtained by Segal showed UMN initially defended the June 2024 hire, then retreated after donor, activist and legislative pressure over his Gaza writings, including warnings that pledges and fundraising could be hit.
The university pulled the offer five days after making it, citing community "perspective," after critics accused Segal of justifying Hamas—an allegation he rejected, noting his op-ed also called the 7 October attacks mass murder and a war crime.
40 Holocaust and genocide scholars, UMN faculty and the AAUP backed Segal, arguing the reversal violated academic freedom; faculty later passed a no-confidence vote against then-interim president Jeff Ettinger and the provost.
Segal, now at Stockton University, said the settlement should encourage other scholars punished over criticism of Israel to challenge universities, while the Minnesota post remains unfilled.