This week the White House announced that it was establishing a new group tasked with developing a national strategy to combat antisemitism.
The move comes after weeks of antisemitic incidents involving well-known figures, such as former president Donald Trump’s recent meeting with Kanye West and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. It’s too soon to know what this new effort will look like or how it will operate. Obviously, tackling antisemitism is important, but we often see such efforts hijacked by groups and individuals looking to target critics of Israel.
For example, days before the Biden announcement, a number of lawmakers sent him a letter calling for a unified strategy on the subject. It was led by the co-chairs of the Senate and House Bipartisan Task Forces for Combating Antisemitism. That’s Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) and Representatives Kathy Manning (D-NC) and Chris Smith (R-NJ). The letter was signed by 122 of their colleagues from both sides of the aisle. There are a number of big progressive names here: Raphael Warnock, Katie Porter, Ed Markey, and Barbara Lee.
“We welcome the measures the Administration has taken thus far to address antisemitism,” reads the letter. “However, combating a growing threat of this magnitude, particularly here at home, requires a strategic, whole-of-government approach.”
The text never actually mentions the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism directly, but it contains a clear reference to the controversial measure: “Interagency coordination also could benefit from considering a broadly understood definition of antisemitism, as several agencies have adopted or recognized individually.”
Many have been sounding the alarm about the IHRA definition since it was first developed in 2016. “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” it reads. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
This is obviously vague enough to be weaponized against defenders of Palestine, but even more disturbing is the eleven contemporary examples of antisemitism that are attached to the definition. They include “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” is one, “Applying double standards” to Israel that are not “expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”
In 2020 more than 120 Palestinian and Arab academics and journalists put out a statement warning about the implications of such a definition, “Through ‘examples’ that it provides, the IHRA definition conflates Judaism with Zionism in assuming that all Jews are Zionists, and that the state of Israel in its current reality embodies the self-determination of all Jews,” it read. “We profoundly disagree with this. The fight against antisemitism should not be turned into a stratagem to delegitimize the fight against the oppression of the Palestinians, the denial of their rights and the continued occupation of their land.”
Many supporters of the definition insist that it does not include all criticisms of Israel and that people are still free to critique the country’s policies. This is only technically true, as the line between valid criticism and antisemitism is left intentionally murky. Other supporters of the definition openly admit that it can be used to crack down on any Israel critic. Some even blatantly acknowledge that that’s the entire point. Here’s Israeli antisemitism envoy Noa Tishby making remarks to a congressional task force on antisemitism earlier this year: “The reason that IHRA unfortunately gets a pushback is..exactly because of Israel..it’s very convenient to condemn Nazis, nobody likes to walk around and call themself an antisemite, but you kind of go ‘I’m not an antisemite, I’m just an anti-Zionist.’ That is considered okay and that is one of those things that we have to make clear: anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Period. End of story. There’s no question about that.”
It’s not like the Biden administration needs pressuring on this issue. They’ve repeatedly made it clear that they endorse the definition. Last year Secretary of State Blinken sent a letter to American Zionist Movement President Richard Heideman declaring that he “enthusiastically embraces” and its full list of examples. A number of high-profile liberals signing the Rosen letter indicate there will be little resistance in Washington if that’s the route they choose.
Puma
There’s been a lot of great coverage about how Palestine has been represented at this World Cup. Across social media, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott has been using the tournament to inform people about their boycott campaign against Puma.
Puma became a target of the BDS movement in 2018 after the company signed a four-year deal to sponsor the Israel Football Association (IFA), which has multiple teams based in illegal West Bank settlements.
The IFA is an affiliate of FIFA, and so is the Palestinian Football Association. Under FIFA regulations, teams aren’t allowed to play games on the territory of another member association, but these rules have not been enforced in this situation. This is yet another example where a special exception is made for Israel. Back in 2014, the association immediately took action when the Russian Football Union tried to play games in Crimea.
“Palestinian athletes are regularly prevented from training and participating in competitions, at home and abroad,” explains a Palestinian BDS National Committee on the situation. Israel has bombed and destroyed Palestinian stadiums and sports structures and routinely denied freedom of movement to Palestinian athletes. It has imprisoned and shot Palestinian athletes and killed Palestinian children playing football more than once.”
Odds & Ends
?️ A group of liberal Jewish groups (including J Street and Americans for Peace Now) put out a statement condemning House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s plan to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. “We may not agree with some of Congresswoman Omar’s opinions, but we categorically reject the suggestion that any of her policy positions or statements merit disqualification from her role on the committee,” it reads.
?️ Facebook has apparently notified Palestine Chronicle that its page might be deleted.
?? Palestine Legal’s Danya Zituni has an op-ed in Truthout on the alarming number of U.S. cities and counties who have adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism:
For decades, the state of Israel has faced increasing international condemnation for its racial discrimination and violent displacement of Palestinians. International watchdogs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both released reports accusing Israel of committing apartheid. Now, the IHRA definition is attempting to smear those criticisms themselves as racist. Black and Brown activists challenging racist surveillance by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) recognize the irony of this development.
?? The U.S. Navy is naming a new warship after the Iraq War’s two battles in Fallujah. Here’s journalist Aaron Glantz reporting from Fallujah in November 2004:
Glantz: Over the weekend, with more then 600 of Fallujah’s residents dead and thousands injured, U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, declared a unilateral cease-fire in Fallujah, and said the Americans wanted to give women and children of Fallujah a chance to flee the city. But U.S. military snipers remain on rooftops and bridges, and the marines theater commander declared his troops retained their right to defend themselves. The result seems like this one.
[tape] This footage was taken by independent filmmaker, Julia Guest, one of the few western journalists, who have gained access to Fallujah since the siege began. She accompanied a team bringing medical supplies into Fallujah this Saturday during the cease-fire. The picture accompanying these sounds is of an old woman in a hospital bed, a U.S. marines sniper bullet in her neck. Clinic director Mekki Al Azar:
Al Azar: They say there is a cease-fire and they said 12:00. People went out to do some shopping, and everybody who went out was shot, and this place was full and half of them were dead. I don’t know why. Please, you do your best to ask them why.
Glantz: Julia Guest describes one of those shot during the cease-fire.
Guest: When I arrived, I found a woman who I think was in her 70’s who had decided to try to help her sons get out of the city. They decided to leave the family group, and so she just had taken the decision to walk of the front door waving a white flag, because they knew they were in a heavily — there was a lot of shooting in their area. And she was shot in the stomach and the foot. So, I found her in the hospital with one of her sons in quite a state and she was evacuated in a small van that volunteered to come out from Baghdad and picked her up and took her back to Baghdad.
Glantz: What day was she shot?
Guest: She was shot the 10th, which was during the cease-fire.
Glantz: Filmmaker, Julia Guest, says the clinic’s ambulance was shot twice by American snipers, also during the cease-fire. The second time the ambulance was shot, it was carrying American and British citizens who had negotiated an agreement with the marines to rescue the injured from an area with heavy U.S. sniper fire.
Guest: Now, it has blue sirens. It was donated from the Kingdom of Spain. It was clearly an ambulance. It’s carrying oxygen bottles. The damage to the ambulance was such that two of the wheels were off of it now. They were left without an ambulance after that. There are bullet holes in the side of the ambulance from the second shooting, and other bits and pieces you see small bullet holes all over the place. [tape end]
? Palestine Legal just published a two-page resource on anti-BDS laws and the right to boycott.
⚖️ Al-Shabaka’s US Policy Fellow Tariq Kenney-Shawa writes about challenging anti-BDS laws in the United States.
?️ I wrote about John Fetterman’s victory and Palestine.
? National Students for Justice in Palestine is holding its annual conference from February 17-19. You can register to attend here.
?⚖️ Al Jazeera is submitting a case to the ICC over the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The Biden administration has made it clear that they oppose such an investigation.
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