GMU event speaker claims the Holocaust was 'not unique'
A speaker at George Mason University recently asserted that the Jewish Holocaust was 'not unique.'
The event, which was sponsored by GMU’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) group, was hosted on Feb. 13.
During an event about Palestine at George Mason University (GMU) in Virginia, one of the speakers, who has previously accused Israel of committing “genocide,” asserted that the Jewish Holocaust was “not unique.”
The event, which was sponsored by GMU’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) group, was hosted on Feb. 13, according to The Washington Free Beacon. It was geared toward teaching about Palestine “in today’s context,” and promised to touch on the “controversial IHRA definition of anti-Semitism,” according to an advertisement.
During the event, one of the speakers, Raz Segal, asserted that the Holocaust was not unique.
”When someone raises this in my class, as an assumption or whatever it is, that the Holocaust is somehow different, I take this as an opportunity,” Segal stated, as reported by the Free Beacon.
“There is a lot of published material about these kinds of comparisons that show us that the Holocaust was not, of course, unique,” he continued. Segal explained that his teaching objective on the subject is to “shattering this idea that anything that is to do with Jews, the Holocaust, Israel is somehow unique.”
Segal is an associate professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, according to an online profile.
The Feb. 13 event was moderated by Holly Mason Badra, a professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at GMU. Badra is “the Minor Advisor for the Women and Gender Studies Minor and the LGBTQ Studies Minor,” according to her profile on the university website
Professor Segal has previously expressed criticism of Israel, including calling the Jewish state’s counteroffensive in Gaza a “textbook case of genocide.”
In an op-ed published on Oct. 13, 2023, just six days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, Segal accused Israel of “settler colonialism,” “mass violence,” and “genocide.”
“But the assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes,” Segal wrote. “I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians.”
“I have written about settler colonialism and Jewish supremacy in Israel, the distortion of the Holocaust to boost the Israeli arms industry, the weaponization of antisemitism accusations to justify Israeli violence against Palestinians, and the racist regime of Israeli apartheid,” the op-ed continued.
Adjunct Cornell Law School Professor Menachem Rosensaft previously told Campus Reform that Segal has an “absolute bias against Israel.”
Campus Reform has contacted George Mason University, Stockton University, and Professor Raz Segal for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
