Further, as the CST’s
Dave Rich and others noted, IHRA is a non-legally binding definition, full of caveats making it clear that, in any situation where IHRA is considering being applied, the overall context, such as the legal protections for academic freedom that exist in a country, must be considered. As Michael Whine, one of IHRA’s co-authors, made clear in a
piece at Fathom, the definition “was to be a guide for better understanding antisemitism, not a speech code etched in stone”. To strike the necessary balance, he stressed, they added the important, conditional phrase, “depending on the context”, and stated explicitly that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”.
The Palestinian signatories then, ignoring that IHRA caveat about mere criticism of Israel not being antisemitic, write “the IHRA definition will not protect Jews from antisemitism, but
will censure legitimate critique of Israel“. That sentence links to a statement by the
antisemitic group ‘Jewish Voices for Peace’ – a movement so extreme that they partner with terror and terror-affiliated groups, and recently celebrated the escape of terrorists serving sentences for the murder of Israeli Jews.
The Palestinian signatories also seem to believe that they understand Judaism more than Jews themselves by claiming, in the letter, that IHRA “falsely conflates Judaism with Zionism”, ignoring the fact that the
overwhelming majority of Jews see Israel as
intrinsically linked to their Jewish identity. The letter also complains that the IHRA definition will only increase discrimination against Palestinian and pro-Palestinian scholars, citing, as a poster-boy for those ‘falsely accused’ of antisemitism, Professor David Miller, writing that “David Miller, was recently “accused of antisemitism over comments about Israel and fired”.
Miller of course was not fired due to “comments about Israel”, but, rather, because he’s consistently
peddled classic antisemitic tropes, evoking the idea that Jews and Jewish groups in the UK are part of a global Zionist conspiracy to push an Islamophobic agenda. The letter also notes that “Prof Miller…accused the university of bowing to pressure from the
Israel lobby”, a fact contradicted by Miller himself, who recently
admitted that the original complaint against him was filed by one of his own Jewish students.
The misrepresentations and lies in the letter continue, as it argues that the “IHRA definition has been
widely disputed since its inception”. This ignores the fact that
it’s been adopted by over 30 (democratic) countries, including the EU Council, Parliament and Commission, Special Rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed, UN Secretary General Antonia Guterres and scores of municipalities, law enforcement agencies and universities.
(full article online)
For the third time in two years, the Guardian published a letter ("If we endorse the IHRA definition of antisemitism we put at risk Australia’s academic free
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