The Anti-Defamation League would have us believe that advocacy for Palestinian rights is a threat to American Jewish safety, and that October 7th was an antisemitic incident. Both ideas are false.
by Kathryn Shihadah
The Associated Press recently reported that lawmakers in several US states are “pushing laws to define antisemitism, triggering debates about free speech and bringing complicated world politics into statehouses.”
Jewish Virtual Library lists 33 states as having adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism – Georgia being the most recent addition (GA HB 30).
Similar legislation is currently making its way through the following states (Italicized bills were introduced before October 7th, 2023):
Florida (FL.H.1355, FL.S.1414, FL.H.0187, FL.S.0148)
Georgia (GA.HB.144, GA.HB.30, GA.HB.616)
Indiana (IN.HB.1002, IN.HB.1224)
Massachusetts (MA.H.1558)
New Hampshire (NH.SB.439)
New Jersey (NJ.A.669, NJ.A.3558, NJ.S.1292, NJ.S.4226, NJ.S.672, NJ.S.1345, NJ.A.1288)
New York (NY.S.03275, NY.A.08284, NY.A.01862, NY.A.08399, NY.S.07752)
North Carolina (NC.S.739)
Pennsylvania (PA.HR.307)
Rhode Island (RI.H.7417)
South Carolina (SC.H.3686, SC.H.4042, SC.S.0419)
South Dakota (SD.HB.1076)
In most, if not all cases, supporters of Israel have initiated these efforts to redefine antisemitism. The bills often push for the adoption of the controversial “IHRA definition” (though they may not name it, or it may be buried):
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The definition may seem straightforward, but it is a veritable minefield.
The controversial definition
In reality, the IHRA definition is a working definition, not a final one, and departs significantly from the long established traditional definition of antisemitism. It is the result of an incremental campaign begun by an Israeli official on behalf of Israel. In other words, it has an agenda.
Most troubling, the definition includes a set of “examples” (that may or may not be mentioned in legislation) that are highly problematic. One example reads,
Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity…[for example] 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.
While the idea of Jewish people having the right to self-determination is reasonable, it is what this statement doesn’t say that is problematic: the land that many Jewish people claim, and the self-determination that they call for on that land, has been for centuries home to another people, who themselves demand the right to self-determination. Israel denies Palestinians their land and their rights for the simple reason that they are not Jewish – making Israel a “racist endeavor.”
Bottom line: certain facts, under the IHRA definition, are considered antisemitic.
The weaponization of “antisemitism”
Criticism of the state of Israel is known as anti-Zionism – a broad term that generally refers to the idea that the modern state of Israel on the land of historic Palestine is flawed or unjust in some way. Equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, as the above example does, can effectually demonize any criticism of Israel.
This is the very issue that Kenneth Stern raised in his 2019 article in the Guardian, “I drafted the definition of antisemitism. Rightwing Jews are weaponizing it.” “I’m a Zionist,” he said. “But on a college campus, where the purpose is to explore ideas, anti-Zionists have a right to free expression.”
Stern wrote the definition “primarily so that European data collectors could know what to include and exclude. That way antisemitism could be monitored better over time and across borders.” But “the problem with IHRA,” he explained, “is that it divides the fight against antisemitism based on what you think about Israel.”
Apparently the Georgia legislature does not have a problem with it: the bill defining antisemitism to include anti-Zionism made it to the desk of Governor Brian Kemp, who signed it with great fanfare.
A clear statement
Democratic Rep. Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Georgia legislature and a sponsor of the bill, recognizes that the resistance group Hamas is anti-Zionist, but takes it a step further. “For anybody that didn’t think that anti-Zionism could cross into antisemitism, the rest of the world could see that it had,” she said.
Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Hamas itself. October 7th was an attack not against Jews because they were Jews, but against a genocidal, oppressive state. That state happens to be made up of people who identified as Jewish. As Hamas stated,
Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
The Hamas statement went on to explain the reasons for the attack:
The battle of the Palestinian people against occupation and colonialism did not start on Oct. 7, but started 105 years ago, including 30 years of British colonialism and 75 years of Zionist occupation…
Over these long decades, the Palestinian people suffered all forms of oppression, injustice, expropriation of their fundamental rights, and the apartheid policies.
The Israeli violations and brutality were documented by many UN organizations and international human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and even documented by Israeli human rights groups.
According official figures, in the period between (January 2000 and September 2023), the Israeli occupation killed 11,299 Palestinians and injured 156,768 others, the great majority of them were civilians.
Despite the fact that the UN had issued more than 900 resolutions over the past 75 years in favor of the Palestinian people, “Israel” rejected to abide by any of these resolutions…
Unfortunately, the US administration and its allies did not pay attention to the suffering of the Palestinian people over the past years but provided cover to the Israeli aggression. They only lamented the Israeli soldiers who were killed on Oct. 7 even without seeking the truth of what happened…
The US administration provided the financial and military support to the Israeli occupation massacres against the Palestinian civilians and the brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip, and still the US officials continue to ignore what the Israeli occupation forces commit in Gaza of mass killing…
Hamas’ attack on October 7th, brutal though it was, stemmed not from a deep-seated, irrational hatred for Jews, but from generations of abuse and injustice – green-lighted and bankrolled by the United States and other Western countries. The communities surrounding Gaza that were attacked were established through violence on stolen Palestinian land.
Legislation that labels Palestinians’ efforts, and the efforts of their supporters, as “antisemitic” does not address the cause of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians – only demonizes the efforts of the side of the argument that is already weaker.
Truth as “antisemitism”
A new report from the Anti-Defamation League claims that antisemitic incidents since October 7th have “increased by 388 percent over the same period last year.”
But, as MintPress News pointed out, “These ADL numbers do not add up – unless one equates opposition to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza with hatred of Jews.”
Since October 7th, 237 rallies in support of Palestine were listed by the ADL as antisemitic. As an example of this alleged bias, ADL offered this photo, featuring one poster accurately suggesting Israeli violence led to Hamas violence of resistance – in a sea of signs calling for a free Palestine and other sentiments.
(The ADL ignores the fact that before Hamas’s armed attack on Israel, Gazans had conducted weekly non-violent marches for their rights, during which IsraelI forces had killed and maimed many participants, including children.)
MintPress offered another illustration, this one from the pro-Israel NGO Stop Antisemitism. The organization took offense at a truck bearing the factual message that Israel kills one child every ten minutes, and calling for a free Palestine – calling the statements antisemitic.
ADL offered examples of alleged “antisemitism” at pro-Palestine rallies. Here are a few:
- One activist in Anaheim, CA, “carried a sign that read: ‘Congress is Israeli occupied territory,’ amplifying an historic antisemitic trope about Jews and power” (Note: It was the ADL that accused “Jews”, not the protester. However, it is factual that the Israel Lobby does have a tight hold on Congress: as is clear in the amount of pro-Israel donations, how Congress prioritizes Israel, and how much pro-Israel legislation is considered – Congress members even ignore pro-Palestine phone calls from constituents).
- In Tampa Bay, FL, a protestor held up a sign: “Resistance against occupation is a human right”; another said: “What happened [on October 7th] was freedom fighters fighting for freedom.” (in fact, resistance – including armed resistance – is a human right, guaranteed under international law).
- On Sunday, October 8, “a speaker stated, ‘The operation, called Al Aqsa Flood, by the resistance, [was] in response to over 100 years of colonialism, 56 years of legal military occupation, and 90 years of terrorism from Israeli settlers…. What do you expect the Palestinian people will do…?” (the historical statements are factual, the question is rhetorical).
- On October 9, a speaker said, “Liberation logic tells us what we all know in our hearts to be true. That our lives, families, communities are precious and sacred. That our dignity is invaluable. That settlers are not civilians and that they have no right to security” (in reality, the very presence of Israeli settlers and their settlements on Palestinian land is a violation of international law; many settlers are armed and commit violent acts against Palestinians with the blessing and cooperation of Israeli forces – that is, Israel provides them security as they assault Palestinians).
Many events, ADL said, “saw protesters glorify the intifada, with chants like ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution’ and ‘intifada, intifada, long live the intifada’” (the word “intifada” means uprising or shaking off, referring to periods when Palestinians rose up in organized resistance against the occupation – again, a guaranteed right under international law).
The implication is that the ADL considers facts to be antisemitic and threatening – if they do not support the status quo in Israel.
Size doesn’t matter
Antisemitic incidents recorded in the spring of 2023 include:
- “Police arrested a teenage boy for allegedly vandalizing a playground in Long Island, N.Y., with a swastika”
- “Swastikas were discovered in a high school bathroom in Massachusetts”
- “A swastika was found spray-painted on an electricity box in Cape Town, South Africa”
- “In Georgia, a swastika was discovered drawn in an elementary-school bathroom while in Florida one was found at a high school”
Playground and bathroom swastikas are undoubtedly antisemitic, but, as MintPress suggests, “It is unlikely…that toilet graffiti is the sort of incident that comes to many Americans’ minds when they read headlines about a shocking and dangerous rise in antisemitism.”
But this is exactly what the ADL seems to want us to believe.
Chicago Public Television channel WTTW announced ominously in an October 3 segment (before the Hamas attack), “There’s ‘hate in the Prairie State,’ according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.”
The guest, ADL spokesperson David Goldenberg, pointed to a troubling rise in antisemitic incidents, as well as in episodes targeting other marginalized groups.
The types of antisemitic incidents include:
- During A high school soccer game someone in the stands allegedly shouted antisemitic remarks at one of the Deerfield players. (“Both schools sent letters to parents and have condemned the comments.”)
- “Swastikas made out of painter’s tape…found on a garbage can in Highland Park, Illinois.”
ADL pointed out that the painter’s tape incident, which occurred in May, was “the 10th act of antisemitic vandalism in Illinois reported to ADL in 2023.” Illinois ranks 7th highest in ADL’s antisemitic incidents – “hate in the Prairie State.”
Goldenberg admitted that the statistical increase in antisemitic incidents is due in part to more reporting of incidents – then asserted without evidence, “the reality is, we’re just having more incidents.”
It is unclear from ADL statistics whether any of the Illinois incidents – or those in other states – were major, or were actually expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Perspective
Bigotry of all kinds is a real problem. American Jews, like others, sometimes face genuine threats.
If we could remove anti-Zionist incidents from the ADL statistics, and put incidents like bathroom graffiti in their proper perspective, the picture would become clearer.
Using the IHRA definition of antisemitism in legislation will not bring an end to antisemitism, but only demonize an already-marginalized group that seeks justice – while ignoring the legitimate calls for Palestinian liberation and justice.
FURTHER READING ON THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE:
- The Anti-Defamation League: Israel’s Attack Dog in the US
- Anti-Defamation League (ADL) again sides with human rights abusers over free speech on campus
- International campaign is criminalizing criticism of Israel as ‘antisemitism’
- Rally ‘against antisemitism’ held to support Israel’s actions against Gaza
- To distract from Gaza slaughter, Israel lobby manufactures antisemitism freakout
- 53 Jewish groups lobby Biden to adopt Israel-centric definition of antisemitism
