According to the new Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, hostility to Israel “…could be the emotion that a Palestinian person feels on account of their experience at the hands of the State.” This, the sole appearance of the word “emotion” in the entire document, is applied exclusively to the direct victims of Israeli crimes, the very people who have the most fact-based, lived-experience for entirely rational “hostility” to the state. Categorizing the Palestinian response as emotional is to deny Palestinians the dignity to simply demand to be free of their shackles.

The new “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism” offers a needed alternative to the fraudulent IHRA definition of antisemitism, but it sill contains crucial flaws.

A group of over 200 Jewish scholars have released a definition of antisemitism in a direct response to the contentious International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which included some criticisms of Israel. While many Palestine activists are applauding the new Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism for taking on the IHRA, they’re also pointing to problems with its framing and voicing concerns over its potential impact.

There are liberals and those on the right who think it’s okay to fight antisemitism by encouraging Islamophobia and certainly anti-Palestinianism. You don’t fight racism with racism. We need to decolonize our understanding of antisemitism as a matter of urgency. And that means ditching the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Israel and its supporters use the charge of antisemitism to deter anyone who dares to hold Israel accountable — from commenters on social media all the way to the International Criminal Court.

Nathan J. Robinson, a former columnist for the American edition of the ‘Guardian,’ says he was “fired” without ceremony after he published a tweet in December mocking the amount of US aid to Israel and the top editor said it smacked of antisemitism.

Earlier this week, a U.S. State Department official declared that the Biden administration “embraces and champions” the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. That definition notably defines certain criticisms of Israel as antisemitic.

Human rights activists launched a campaign this week to stop social media giant Facebook from adjusting its hate speech policy to classify the word ‘Zionist’ as a protected category, a move that would make any criticism of Zionism a violation of Facebook’s Community Standards and hate speech policy.

Faculty and staff at the University of Illinois call on the administration to reject equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism saying it not only carries grave implications for free speech, but also distracts from challenging the actual racism happening on Illinois campuses.

The antisemitism controversy in the British Labour Party was orchestrated by rightwingers and Israel supporters. Joshua Leifer of Jewish Currents fails to call out the bigotry of those who attacked Corbyn. Tony Greenstein relates the true history of Corbyn’s downfall.