The University of Minnesota has paid $250,000 to settle legal claims with Israeli-American historian Raz Segal, more than two years after the institution rescinded an offer for him to lead the university’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Segal is an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, where he teaches and researches mass violence, historical memory, and international human rights frameworks.
The legal settlement, announced by the Center for Constitutional Rights last Thursday, resolved a dispute stemming from June 2024, when the university pulled its job offer following a faculty-led search committee process.
Segal's job offer was revoked due to donor pressure
Internal university documents and public records obtained through legal action confirmed that the job offer was revoked due to donor pressure over Segal’s public characterization of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide, a decision his legal team argued violated his First Amendment protections.
Following the announcement, Segal said in a public statement released last Thursday, “This settlement represents a successful refusal to accept the world of lies that blur an ongoing genocide, and a commitment to continue the intertwined struggles for truth, justice, and accountability – in Palestine and on our campuses.”
The controversy began shortly after Segal published an essay, six days after the October 7 massacre, describing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a textbook case of genocide.
Despite a search committee enthusiastically recommending his hiring after broad consultations, interim university president Jeff Ettinger reversed the decision in June 2024, just five days after the formal offer was extended. Ettinger informed Segal that further members of the university community wished to provide perspective on the appointment.
Public records requests later revealed that emails from pro-Israel donors and organizations to Ettinger in June 2024 warned that fundraising for the center would “grind to a halt” and claimed Segal used “tropes offensive to Jews.”
University PR warned that defending the candidate too strongly was risky
Additional draft documents showed that while the university initially planned to state publicly that it did not apply political litmus tests in hiring, the line was dropped after a chief public relations officer warned that defending the candidate too strongly was risky.
Maria LaHood, deputy Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated in the recent announcement that the University of Minnesota “willfully violated the First Amendment and its own commitment to academic freedom when it succumbed to donor pressure and revoked Dr. Segal’s job offer because he lived up to his values and called a spade a spade.”