In Canada, the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism has served as a tool to bludgeon and silence those engaged in political activism — the primary goal of which is to halt the mass murder of Palestinian children — as being hostile toward Jewish people as a group.
As Independent Jewish Voices notes on its webpage detailing the numerous faults within the IHRA definition:
“The IHRA definition comes appended with 11 illustrative examples of antisemitism, seven of which specifically focus on the state of Israel, rather than on Jews as a group. The list of examples is intended to conflate antisemitism with criticism of Israel and Zionism.”
This is unambiguously correct, but it’s a dangerous line to tread as many bad actors will seize on any opportunity to push antisemitism.
So we both need to ensure that people can freely express political opposition to the actions of the country and government of Israel, but still ensure that these bad actors who are just looking for any opportunity to spread antisemitism don’t have room to breathe.
Requires a deft hand.
The IHRA definition conflates Anti-zionism with anti-semitism, in order to criminalize pro-palestinian activists and organizations protesting the genocide. Rescinding the IHRA definition improves combating genuine anti-semitism, by not attributing the actions of Israel with Judaism and by no longer providing cover for pro-israel anti-semites like Musk and Christian Zionists
For sure I get that.
In my view at least part of why these were put in is that it’s easy for bad actors to use anti-Israel speech as a veneer over their actual underlying antisemitism.
But especially as the government of Israel amplifies its own status as a bad actor, it’s becoming increasingly important to be able to speak openly about this. So I’m on board with the idea you’re presenting, but also just saying we need to be cautious about how this could be used to cause widespread harm.
Oh there are for sure anti-semites who verneer their anti-semitism with anti-israel language, like Candace Owens. They also can’t help themselves but conflate Jewish people with Israelis, as if they are all the same and monolithic, at least in my experience.
Of course they also support the same kind of fascist ideologies and policies, they just try to hide their anti-semitism as anti-israel. The difference between pro-israel anti-semites and anti-israel anti-semites is that the pro-israel ones want to deport all Jewish people to Israel, while the anti-israel anti-semites don’t want Jewish people to exist at all.
It’s pretty easy to spot imo, but it’s important to be critical when unsure
