Does the IHRA Suppress Palestinian Voices?
Although many claim that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism silences Palestinian voices, this is not the case. The definition is a guideline which has been adopted by many nations and universities around the world, to understand and address the rising rates of antisemitism.
Anti-Israel detractors claim that the IHRA silences them because it defines certain elements of their rhetoric as antisemitism. However — unfairly demonizing and delegitimizing Israel, using antisemitic tropes, and substituting Zionists in those tropes instead of Jews — all fall under the IHRA definition.
Clearly, antisemites and anti-Zionist activists just want a free license to spread antisemitic rhetoric under the guise of legitimate criticism of Israel.
THE IHRA
DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM:
WHAT YOU
NEED TO KNOW
INTERNATIONAL
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE
ALLIANCE
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is an organization that works to combat Holocaust denial and antisemitism.
It created a working definition of antisemitism which outlines specific instances of what it is and the various forms in which it manifests in society. It also notes instances where anti- Israel/anti-Zionist rhetoric quality as antisemitic.
One of IHRA’s basic tenets is its recognition that some forms of criticism of Israel are a new form of antisemitism, where the Jewish collective, Israel, is vilified in a morally indistinguishable manner from classic antisemitism.
The definition states:
“Denying the Jewish people their right to self- determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
Critics believe this passage denies them the right to criticize Israel. What they mean: they want the right to advocate for the end of the Jewish state with moral impunity.
IHRA doesn’t prohibit “discussion” of discrimination within Israel. It only defines arguments as antisemitic when they claim the only way to alleviate such racism is dismantling the state and eliminating its Jewish identity. It could not be more malicious to suggest that the only way to handle bigotry is to dismantle a country.
IHRA defines antisemitic “visions” of the future, which result in the end of the world’s only Jewish majority state. Putting Jews in a country where they’re the unarmed minority under majority Palestinian Muslim rule, possibly led by Hamas, would put millions of Jewish lives in grave danger. Pseudo-progressive anti- Zionists never address this.
In a Guardian letter penned by Palestinian activists and academics criticizing IHRA, they state:
“We believe that justice requires the full support
of Palestinians’ right to self-determination, including the demand to end the internationally acknowledged occupation of their territories and the statelessness and deprivation of Palestinian refugees. The suppression of Palestinian rights
in the IHRA definition betrays an attitude upholding Jewish privilege in Palestine instead of Jewish rights and Jewish supremacy_over Palestinians instead of Jewish safety.”
The overwhelming majority of Israeli and diaspora Jews who are Zionists are smeared as “privileged” and upholding the racist belief in “Jewish supremacy.” The argument by these Palestinian academics and intellectuals seems clear: Zionism equals racism and, ipso facto, a core element of Jewish identity, is itself racist. By publishing their letter, The Guardian amplified and legitimized voices attacking Jews as Jews.
Photo Credit: Matt Hrkac from Geelong / Melbourne, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nothing in the IHRA definition denies anyone the right to express themselves other than, of course, their “right” to be antisemitic.
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Apartheid Week Exposed | Universities
Learn about the ‘apartheid week’ campaign that takes place on college and university campuses across North America.
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Guardian letter by Palestinian artists and academics: Zionists are racists
The Guardian published an op-ed length letter by dozens of Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals (including PLO official Hanan Ashrawi a
C CAMERA UK/ Adam Levick/Nov 30, 2020
Guardian letter lies about IHRA Antisemitism definition
Guardian letter by Palestinian Artists
Infographic: Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitism?
“The Antisemitic Rhetoric of Anti-Zionists”
Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitism?
Nazi Germany vs. Anti-Zionism
Learn more at
apartheidweekexposed.org
On Jewish Supremacy, Imperialism, & Conquest:
“The secret goals of the Jewish people are laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Der Stürmer has written about them more than a hundred times. They contain the Jewish plan for world conquest…” (Lead article in Der Stürmer, 1933)
“The goal of the Jew is to make himself the ruler of humanity.” (Instructional booklet for young Germans on Nazi party’s program and leaders, 1934)
“[Israel’s religious leaders] believe that everybody that is not a Jew is only on earth to serve them, and they believe that the Indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human.” (Rock musician/anti-Zionist activist Roger Waters, 2013)
“How can you… support a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else?” (American BDS activist Linda Sarsour, 2019)
On Racism:
“With every means [the Jew] tries to destroy the racial foundations of the people he has set out to subjugate.” (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf)
“The Jews are one of the most racially conscious peoples… Leading Jews have always stressed the importance of race and racial purity … His parasitic nature led the Jew to hold his own race pure, and to strike other races at the core of their being, their racial nature….” (SS racial policy handbook, 1943)
“[Zionism] is an ideology which was rooted in the racism, colonialism and ethnic nationalism of the [19th] century in which it was born, and the practical application of which (i.e., the creation of Israel) has showed their pernicious influence…”
(UK Labour Party member Ian Wellens, 2020)
“Zionism is racism, and Israel is a war criminal apartheid regime, an inherently racist endeavor founded on ethnic cleansing and lies…” (Journalist/Founder of Electronic Intifada Ali Abunimah tweet, 2021)
“The Antisemitic Rhetoric of Anti-Zionists”
Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitism?
Nazi Germany vs. Anti-Zionism
Learn more at
apartheidweekexposed.org
On Jews as “Devious Liars and Slanderers”:
“To the outside, the Jew works anxiously to conceal the differences between him and his host people, to lull them to sleep so that he can continue his destructive activities undisturbed…” (Reichspropagandaleitung’s monthly bulletin for speakers, 1935)
“They will stop at nothing. They will lie and slander and continually attempt to incite the whole world against Germany. Every means a Jewish brain can think of will be used.” (Lead article in Der Stürmer, 1933)
“Israel has hypnotized the world; may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” (U.S. Member of Congress Ilhan Omar tweet, Nov. 16, 2012)
“All governments lie… But Israel engages in the kinds of jaw-dropping lies that characterize despotic and totalitarian regimes… It does not deform the truth; it inverts it.” (Former New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges, August 2014)
On Racism:
“[W]hile the Zionists try to make the rest of the world believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim. It doesn’t even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organization for their international world swindle… with its own sovereign rights and removed from the intervention of other states: a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.” (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf)
“Zionism is based on the creation of an alternative narrative, part of it related to the Biblical narrative and part of it just manufactured…” (Journal of Palestine Studies editor/Palestinian advisor Rashid Khalidi, 2020)
“[T]he Jewish State of Israel, the bastard progeny of Zionism’s rape of Palestine, is still ‘thriving’ among us as the fictitious ‘ancestral homeland’ of Jews.” (Author and BDS Leader Rima Najjar, 2019)