[ A recent Department of Education decision marks a victory for
Palestine solidarity organizing, but the fight isn’t over.]
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WE CAN’T LET ANTISEMITISM BE WEAPONIZED TO CRIMINALIZE SOLIDARITY
WITH PALESTINE  
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Taylor Fox , Rachel Krumholz , Sarah Frieman
February 13, 2023
Truthout
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_ A recent Department of Education decision marks a victory for
Palestine solidarity organizing, but the fight isn’t over. _

Pro-Palestine activists attend a rally at Grand Central Terminal in
New York City, New York, on January 21, 2022., Ed Jones / Agence
France-Presse (AFP) // Truthout

 

As Jewish students and anti-Zionist organizers, we know that it is in
no way antisemitic to support the fight for Palestinian liberation.
False accusations of such should not be used to silence Palestinian
solidarity activists. That’s why we were glad to see the Department
of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ditch a misleading and
discredited definition of antisemitism in its recent fact sheet on
protecting students from discrimination.

While the Office for Civil Rights decision marked an important
victory, the Biden administration is currently leaving the
International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of
antisemitism on the table
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potential adoption in December 2023. The struggle is not over yet.

The Office for Civil Rights decision came after anti-Palestinian lobby
groups pressed for the Department of Education to formalize Donald
Trump’s 2019 executive order
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which asks government agencies to consider the discredited and
disputed definition of antisemitism promoted by the IHRA when
assessing discrimination charges at public schools and universities.

Thankfully, the Office for Civil Rights declined to adopt the IHRA
definition in its most recent fact sheet
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which outlines protections for Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu
and Buddhist students, without suppressing the Palestinian liberation
movement.

Adopting the IHRA definition would have been harmful because rather
than addressing the roots of antisemitism in Christian hegemony and
white supremacy, the definition acts as though criticism of Israel is
the source of antisemitism. In fact, 6 out of 10 examples of
antisemitism offered within the IHRA definition involve speech that is
critical of Israel. For instance, it suggests that a primary example
of antisemitism involves “claiming that the existence of a State of
Israel is a racist endeavor.”

The IHRA definition’s harm is twofold: First, it weaponizes the idea
of antisemitism as a tool for criminalizing the speech and advocacy of
Palestinians and those working in solidarity with them; and second, it
obscures what actual antisemitism is actually about. And in doing so,
it wrongly and dangerously pits Palestinian liberation against Jewish
safety.

Defenders of the Israeli government have already weaponized the IHRA
definition
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legally target or threaten classroom discussions, guest lecturers,
film screenings and student organizing in support of Palestinian
freedom. These attacks threaten the core mission of universities: to
promote critical inquiry and freedom of expression in order for us to
learn. The IHRA definition has been used to attempt to shut
down educational events
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and some have even suggested attaching criminal penalties
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it — all for trying to confront Israel’s historical and ongoing
practices of settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and land
dispossession.

The IHRA definition also obscures the identities of anti-Zionist Jews
such as ourselves, who reject the idea of a Jewish nation-state. With
a long history of Jewish opposition to Zionism
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essential part of our Jewish values and central to our Jewish
identities. As such, we refuse to allow the willful misrepresentation
of our Judaism in order to target our Palestinian peers. The IHRA
definition is a prime example of how this misrepresentation has been
disseminated into institutions. This is a reality that we have
witnessed firsthand on our campuses.

In three years of organizing with The George Washington University’s
chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, we have witnessed and been directly
implicated in our university’s intentional conflation of
anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

This past fall, George Washington University professor Lara Sheehi
was baselessly accused of antisemitism by StandWithUs,
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notoriously anti-Palestinian and right-wing activist group, for
voicing political opinions that critiqued Zionism when discussing
Israel with a class of doctoral students
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StandWithUs filed the legal complaint directly with the Department of
Education. This is a foremost example of why the Office for Civil
Rights decision to reject the IHRA definition is vital; had it been
institutionalized, the claims against Sheehi would have legal
standing. Despite this, the school’s administration has legitimized
the targeting of Sheehi by conducting an independent investigation
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deviating from their standard of internal processes and thus, directly
discriminating against Sheehi.

This is just one example of George Washington University’s
incessant pattern of anti-Palestinian discrimination
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much of which operates under the guise of fighting antisemitism and
protecting Jewish students. What is dishearteningly ironic about
George Washington University’s involvement in this case is that it
does not protect anyone. Instead, the university’s permittance of a
nonaffiliated right-wing organization to target one of their own
professors further perpetuates anti-Arab discrimination, suppresses
academic freedom, and makes their students and faculty more vulnerable
to external threats.

At Berkeley, Law Students for Justice in Palestine invited student
organizations to adopt a bylaw against hosting Zionist speakers in
solidarity with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions movement [[link removed]]. The ensuing backlash
was intense. Media outlets parroted false narratives
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the boycott was inherently antisemitic, leading to doxxing, harassment
and targeted threats against primarily students of color. In fact, Ken
Marcus, a Trump Office for Civil Rights appointee and major proponent
of the IHRA definition, was responsible for fabricating a claim that
the bylaw led to “Jewish-free zones”
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Berkeley Law. After Marcus’s article went viral, multiple
organizations sent trucks
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our campus that blasted students’ names and branded them as
antisemites. Drivers of the trucks harassed Muslim students walking to
class and even followed members of Law Students for Justice in
Palestine to their homes. Faculty canceled classes to protect
students’ safety.

Like at George Washington University, this harassment unsurprisingly
did not make Jewish students feel any safer
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It only incited violence against our peers. If adopted, the IHRA
definition would provide legal credibility to the targeted harassment
faced by Palestine solidarity organizers at campuses like Berkeley and
George Washington University. Anti-Zionist Jewish students could
potentially be liable for “discriminating” against our own
community. Even Kenneth Stern, the key architect of IHRA, opposed its
adoption by federal agencies, emphasizing that IHRA is only a working
definition that was “never intended” to restrict campus speech.
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More broadly, the IHRA definition misrepresents and fails to combat
the roots of antisemitism. It overwhelmingly defines antisemitism as
mere individual prejudice — “hatred toward Jews”
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which obfuscates how antisemitism is fueled by white nationalism
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capitalism
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Isolating antisemitism, rather than understanding its place in the
same systems that uphold racism and xenophobia, will only place both
Palestinian and Jewish students in more danger.

This intentional deviation from the collective fight against
institutional oppression will inherently leave other communities of
students — students of color, disabled students, queer students —
behind. In order to ensure Jewish students’ safety, we have to fight
for all students’ safety. This is a principal belief that is
integral to political struggles at universities across the country,
which include the ones we organize with on our respective campuses. In
order to dismantle antisemitism, we need to build safety through
solidarity with movements on and off campus that are resisting white
supremacy, capitalism, policing, settler colonialism and militarism.

While we celebrate the Office for Civil Rights decision against
codifying the IHRA definition into law as a movement victory, the
fight isn’t over yet. Zionist organizations will continue to
pressure the Office for Civil Rights to make IHRA into law under the
guise of fighting antisemitism. While the Biden administration
considers the IHRA definition, it is more critical than ever to
maintain collective pressure across all levels. This includes holding
individual campus administrators accountable, petitioning your
university student associations and calling for fellow organizers to
publicly resist efforts to silence the Palestinian freedom movement.
At George Washington University, Berkeley, and all universities across
the United States, it’s crucial that we as Jews, as students, and as
organizers in the collective fight toward liberation, continue to
challenge the marginalization of students.

_[TAYLOR FOX is a second-year student at UC Berkeley Law School and
member of Law Students for Justice in Palestine. _

_RACHEL KRUMHOLZ is a fourth-year student at The George Washington
University, where she studies English and Creative Writing and
American Studies. She is a coordinating committee member of Jewish
Voice for Peace GW. _

_SARAH FRIEMAN is a fourth-year Anthropology major at The George
Washington University. She has been a coordinating committee member
with Jewish Voice for Peace GW since 2020.]_

_Copyright © Truthout [[link removed]]. Reprinted with
permission. May not be reprinted without permission._

_Truthout provides daily news, in-depth reporting and critical
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* Antisemitism
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Palestinians
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* Palestine solidarity
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* zionism
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* Anti-Zionism
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* BDS
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* BDS Movement
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* Boycott
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* Divestment
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* apartheid
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* Israeli apartheid
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* Occupied Territories
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* IHRA
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* Office for Civil Rights
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* Department of Education
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