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As you may know by now, President Trump signed an executive order <[link removed]> (EO) yesterday that is designed to suppress criticism of Israel under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism. Much of the national reporting on this EO missed the mark, focusing on what was misunderstood as an effort by the Administration to redefine Judaism. But what this EO does is expand the definition of anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel, restricting free speech on a political question in a blatantly unconstitutional manner.

We have been fighting against this politically motivated attempt at expanding the definition of anti-Semitism for years, working with civil rights and civil liberties advocates <[link removed]> to explain what's wrong <[link removed]> with the so-called "Anti-Semitism Awareness Act" (which sought to legislate what this EO imposed by decree) and helped to put a stop to it <[link removed]> last year. Over the last 24 hours, we engaged with several <[link removed]>media <[link removed]>outlets <[link removed]> to center the correct story, and defend free speech, and we have issued a memo <[link removed]> exposing the groups that pushed for this EO, which were misidentified in The New York Times as "education, civil rights and religious organizations," when in fact many of them are ideologically motivated groups who traffic in bigotry to suppress free expression.

To better understand issue, see our full statement <[link removed]> below:


AAI Opposes Unconstitutional Executive Order Designed to Suppress Advocacy for Palestinian Human Rights

President Donald Trump signed anExecutive Order <[link removed]>that constitutes a direct assault on academic freedom, First Amendment rights, and advocacy for Palestinian human rights.

AAI has long opposed efforts to stifle criticism of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights under the guise of combatting anti-Semitism, including congressional efforts like the “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act <[link removed]>.” These are anchored in efforts to legitimize a working definition of anti-Semitism, since adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), that was never intended for use in the United States. The author of the definition himself, Ken Stern,testified to Congress <[link removed]>that his working definition has been “abused” and “employed in an attempt to restrict academic freedom and punish political speech.”

As the Supreme Court held inFEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life <[link removed]>, “the First Amendment requires us to err on the side of protecting political speech rather than suppressing it.” Accordingly, it would be inappropriate to list criticism of Arab countries as examples of hate toward Arab Americans, just as the Executive Order adopts criticism of Israel as an example of anti-Semitism. One must be able to freely express criticism of our own government, any foreign government, or any policies we deem objectionable—whether on college campuses or in the halls of Congress.

Instead, the Executive Order requires the Department of Education to consider this problematic working definition in “identifying evidence of discrimination,” which includes “the targeting of the state of Israel <[link removed]>” within the definition of anti-Semitism. While Section 5 of the Order attempts to allow proponents to claim it will not be used for unconstitutional ends, it ultimately promulgates federal policy that will chill conduct and cause individuals to self-censor. This order will in effect censor those defending Palestinian human rights until a lawsuit is brought and the slow machinery of the judiciary strikes down the action. 

In 2017, AAIopposed the nomination <[link removed]>of Ken Marcus to lead the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education—a chief proponent of the abuse of this working definition as a means of curtailing criticism of the Israeli government. In a piece forThe Jerusalem Post <[link removed]>, Marcus explained that he is “creating a very strong disincentive for outrageous behavior by students in particular. Israel-haters now publicly complain that these cases make it harder for them to recruit new adherents… Needless to say getting caught up in a civil rights complaint is not a good way to build a resume or impress a future employer.”  After Marcus was confirmed by a party-line vote in 2018, AAIwarned <[link removed]>his confirmation would in time lead to a “propensity to use the authority of the federal government to suppress criticism of a foreign country—Israel—under the guise of combatting anti-Semitism.” That time has come. 

Notably, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Title VI’sprohibition of discrimination based on race, color, or national origin <[link removed]>already “protects students of any religion from discrimination, including harassment, based on a student’s actual or perceived: shared ethnicity or ethnic characteristics, or citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity.” That existing federal civil rights laws already protect Jewish students from discrimination on campus should cast doubt on the purported intentions behind this Executive Order. Rather than protecting Jewish students from burgeoning anti-Semitism, the goal of this Executive Order is to protect Israel from criticism and suppress advocacy for Palestinian human rights under the threat of federal civil rights enforcement.

AAI Executive Director Maya Berry stated the following:

“Anti-Semitism is a real and growing problem. As AAIreported last month <[link removed]>, law enforcement agencies reported a record number of violent anti-Jewish hate crime offenses in 2018. It is imperative that the Department of Education, which has rightly interpreted Title VI to extend protections against anti-Semitism, maintain a focus on real civil rights violations. Unfortunately, today’s Executive Order makes no effort to actually address this deadly problem. Instead, it furthers a definition of anti-Semitism that was written as a working definition by a State Department official specifically for non-legally binding foreign applications. Today’s action is just the latest instance of how this working definition has been intentionally laundered through an echo chamber of bills, resolutions, agencies, and bodies in hopes of granting the appearance of legitimacy to the politically motivated desire to conflate the real problem of anti-Semitism with criticism of the state of Israel.

We must not be distracted by sensational headlines or tweets. The crux of the problem is the application of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. In utilizing this definition, President Trump’s Executive Order is dangerous because it is designed to restrict pro-Palestinian advocacy, violates our First Amendment right to free speech, and draws the Department of Education’s limited focus and resources away from addressing actual civil rights violations on our college campuses. This politically motivated order will harm civil rights, will be challenged, and will be overturned. AAI will continue our important work toimprove hate crime data collection <[link removed]>andcombat the rise in white nationalist violence <[link removed]>. We welcome the partnership of all government agencies in those efforts, which are aimed at ultimately reducing the number of victims of hate, instead of creating a subterfuge to protect Israel from critical treatment on American campuses.”



Arab American Institute
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Arab American Institute - United States
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