On Sept. 30, Brown University professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Omer Bartov, delivered a talk at the University of New Mexico about the war in Gaza.
Bartov is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on genocide, according to UNM Newsroom. He held the talk, called “Speaking of Genocide: the Holocaust, Israel-Palestine and the War in Gaza since October 7,” at Anthropology Hall. The hall — designed to accommodate 290 people — was filled with attendees, and more people stood outside in the hallway.
The talk was delivered the same day that the Israel Defense Forces began ground operations in southern Lebanon, according to the Washington Post.
Bartov fought for the IDF in the 1970s. However, as a genocide scholar, he was concerned by the parallels between Israeli attitudes toward Palestinians and German attitudes during the Holocaust, according to the Guardian.
A Palestinian Mexican bilingual graphic exhibition titled “Enough is Enough! Stop the Genocide in Gaza” was displayed in the hallways outside the talk.
The event was co-sponsored by the UNM Department of Anthropology, Office of the Provost, Department of History, International Studies Institute and Jewish Voice for Peace, according to the UNM Anthropology website.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas killed over 1,000 civilians in Israel, according to Human Rights Watch. According to Bartov, one cause of the attack was the attempted “judicial coup” by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2023. The Israeli parliament passed a bill that limited the power of the Supreme Court, according to Al Jazeera.
The political controversy created by this action led to polarization in Israeli society, according to Bartov. To Hamas, this was a sign of vulnerability that ultimately prompted it to launch the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, Bartov said.
In June, a United Nations commission declared Israeli authorities responsible for war crimes in Gaza, including willful killing and torture.
The IDF’s May offensive into Egypt-Palestine border city Rafah ultimately led to Bartov defining the war in Gaza as a genocide, he said. Before this offensive, he wrote in the New York Times that while “war crimes and crimes against humanity were happening,” there was “no proof” of genocide in Gaza.
The deliberate targeting of civilian structures to prevent displaced populations from returning and the creation of a “security zone” between Israeli settlements and Gazan populations is evidence of genocide, according to Bartov.
According to UNM professor Les Field, who invited Bartov to speak to the campus, the talk was meant to facilitate deeper discussions around divestment from Israeli companies. It was intended to bring together people with a variety of perspectives on the issue, as well as correct notions that anti-Semitism is the cause of student movements that are critical of Israel, he said.
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In April, the Daily Lobo revealed that UNM held investments in two mutual funds that contain investments in Israeli companies. The University also holds bonds in Honeywell — a company that produces IDF missile parts.
Field expressed his appreciation for UNM and attendees of the talk.
“It exceeded my wildest hopes,” Field said. “The attendance was absolutely stupendous the attendance of various groups, from regents to political figures, student activists, administration people — all of those groups were there.”
Shin Thant Hlaing is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
