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We speak with Israeli American Jewish scholar Raz Segal about the University of Minnesota's move to rescind a job offer over his comments early in the war on Gaza, when he characterized the Israeli assault as a "textbook case of genocide." Segal was set to lead the university's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, but after two board members quit in opposition to Segal's selection and a smear campaign led by the pro-Israel group Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), the school revoked the offer. Segal says he has been "targeted because of my identity as a Jew who refuses the narrowing down of Jewish identity to Zionism" and calls the JCRC-led opposition a "hateful campaign of lies and distortions" and "crude political intervention." "This was a completely legitimate hiring process," states Segal. He says rescission of his offer "spells the end of this idea of free inquiry, of academic freedom, of research and teaching — and all in the service, of course, of supporting an extremely violent state."

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