{
  "id": 599104,
  "title": "A Wealthy Donor to My University Just Silenced One of the World’s Leading Scholars of Genocide",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/11/a-wealthy-donor-to-my-university-just-silenced-one-of-the-worlds",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-08-11T19:06:09.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Literary Hub",
    "slug": "literary-hub",
    "url": "https://lithub.com/a-wealthy-donor-to-my-university-just-silenced-one-of-the-worlds-leading-scholars-of-genocide/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In July 2026, Gaza witnessed the deadliest month in recent history, with 152 Palestinians killed by Israel, increasing the total death toll to over 73,000 in just three years. The United Nations reported that 20,000 of these deaths were children. Despite these staggering figures, on August 1, the Atlantic City Press, a local newspaper, reported that John F. Scarpa, a major donor to Stockton University, had complained to the university's president, Joe Bertolino, about the webpage for the master's program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The webpage, according to Scarpa, contained \"misinformation\" stating that Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza since October 2023 had killed over 70,000 Palestinians, including more than 20,000 children. Scarpa argued that Gaza's genocide was a matter of significant legal, political, and scholarly dispute and that the page's language was the personal views of Raz Segal, a leading Holocaust and genocide scholar. Following Scarpa's letter, the University Relations and Marketing office at Stockton University reviewed the webpage and removed Segal's words. The university's provost defended the removal, stating that academic freedom only applies to scholarly materials and classroom discussions, not public-facing materials like the university website. This case highlights the power of donors and their ability to influence the content of academic institutions, even at the expense of truth and human lives.",
  "summary": "July 2026 was the deadliest month of the last year for Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 152 Palestinians were murdered by Israel, bringing the official death toll in the American-backed Israeli genocide to more than 73,000 people in",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}