Speakers condemn Gaza “genocide” by Israel, seek ceasefire at Indiana university event
Student and faculty speakers at an event held in the Bergland Auditorium of Indiana University Northwest’s Savannah Center on Thursday night condemned the Israeli government’s ongoing assault on the Gaza strip and called for an end to the violence.
“Immediate cease-fire now is the minimum,” Raoul Contreras, chair of IUN’s Minority Studies Department, told an audience of around three dozen people.
Contreras cited the position of Raz Segal, an Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies, who has labeled Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a textbook case of genocide.”
For the past month, the Israeli Defense Forces have conducted a campaign of airstrikes against the Palestinian territory, killing an estimated 11,000 people according to Gaza’s health ministry, almost all of whom have been civilians. The assault was prompted by an October 7 attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians by Hamas, the, many of whom have relatives in Israel or other ties to the country.
