Welcome to Battling the IHRA Definition. This trailer is a quick introduction into “the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” which has been weaponized by Zionist institutions and policymakers to equate criticizing Israel with antisemitism and equate Zionism with Jewishness. The IHRA definition is a tactic used by political actors — particularly the right — to obscure Zionist politics, paper over US and other imperial interests in dominating Palestine, and to attack the anti-genocide movement.
And that’s why we are Battling the IHRA Definition. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new episodes.
Transcript
Introducing: Battling the IHRA Definition
This is Battling the IHRA definition, a new podcast by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. I’m Yulia Gilich, your host and a member of the founding collective of the Institute.
“The IHRA definition” refers to the push by Zionist institutions and policymakers to equate criticizing Israel with antisemitism and equate Zionism with Jewishness. We need to be clear from the start that these are right-wing talking points coming from a range of sources, including Christian evangelicals, Jewish-identified Zionist organizations, the Biden administration, European governments.. They attack Jewish anti-Zionists; they talk over global Jewish opposition to Israel, but of course IHRA arguments are not about defending Jews from antisemitism. Rather, they’re used to paper over US and other imperial interests in dominating Palestine, to obscure the role of white Christian Zionism in driving US support for Israel, to distract from Zionism’s explicitly settler colonial project, and to attack the anti-genocide movement. We’ve covered a lot of that on the Unpacking Zionism podcast that the institute produces and we invite you to check it out as we’re adding new episodes weekly.
The new podcast, Battling the IHRA definition, will zoom in on how IHRA is being used to obscure many of the ways that Zionism is working. IHRA is the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) which initially drafted that definition of antisemitism as a quote unquote “working document.” Its author, Kenneth Stern, has denounced its misuse and weaponization by the right, and it’s worth reading a little of what he said. I’ll note that when he refers to “Title VI,” he’s talking about a section of US civil rights law that applies to any organization or activity that gets federal funding.
Here is an excerpt: “Starting in 2010, rightwing Jewish groups took the “working definition”… and decided to weaponize it with Title VI cases… Mostly they [these civil rights cases] complained about speakers, assigned texts, and protests that they said violated the definition. All these cases lost, so then these same groups asked the University of California to adopt the definition and apply it to its campuses. When that failed, they asked Congress, and when those efforts stalled, the president.” This is the end of the quote.
That’s how it came to be, in 2019, that Trump signed an executive order that changed US civil rights policy. Until then, civil rights law had listed race, color, and national origin as categories to protect against discrimination. Trump’s executive order added antisemitism, and more specifically, Trump wrote that agencies enforcing the law should consider the IHRA definition. That’s the law that Zionist organizations are using to file complaints and lawsuits against universities where students have protested Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and where faculty have taught classes about settler colonialism.
IHRA isn’t just a problem in federal policy. The IHRA definition has been adopted by institutions and corporations, used by media outlets, and become a widely-used talking point for smearing anti-Zionists, Palestinians, educators, human rights advocates, and more. And as popular resistance has grown for Palestine – popular resistance against Zionism – the IHRA definition is being used as a tool to attack it from many angles.
In Congress, there are proposed IHRA bills that threaten to criminalize protest, defund schools, ban teaching about racism, target BIPOC & Jewish organizations, fire supportive professors, evict students, deport immigrants, undo DEI policies, and excuse genocide. Wherever it is already policy, the IHRA definition is used to smear, defund, and in some cases criminalize those who oppose racism, colonialism, and genocide, and those who speak up for Palestinian liberation.
In October 2023, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism held a 2-day convening called “Battling the IHRA Definition: Theory and Activism.” This new podcast will feature recordings of the conference presentation as well as new research and analysis.
Check out our website, https://criticalzionismstudies.org/
for more resources on the IHRA definition, including a NO IHRA toolkit for students, faculty, and staff who are working to stop right wing attacks on universities, knowledge, and communities, attacks that use anti-Palestinian racism as their starting point.
And that’s why we are Battling the IHRA Definition. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new episodes.
Until next time,
Solidarity from the ICSZ