{"id":1068788,"date":"2023-06-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/production.public.theintercept.cloud\/?p=430391"},"modified":"2023-06-06T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T08:00:00","slug":"biden-embraces-antisemitism-definition-that-has-upended-free-speech-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/06\/06\/biden-embraces-antisemitism-definition-that-has-upended-free-speech-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Embraces Antisemitism Definition That Has Upended Free Speech in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
During a graduation<\/u> speech at the City University of New York\u2019s law school last month, Fatima Mousa Mohammed, a Yemeni American student, criticized \u201cIsraeli settler colonialism\u201d and advocated for \u201cthe fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her words, which the university administration condemned as \u201chate speech<\/a>,\u201d kicked off a new round of public debate about the distinction between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. Republican members of Congress responded by introducing legislation<\/a> that would deny federal funding to academic institutions that \u201cauthorize Anti-Semitic events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill cites a definition of antisemitism that the Israeli government and its supporters have been pushing in the United States and elsewhere, one that conflates prejudice toward Jews with criticism of Zionism and the state of Israel. And it comes on the heels of President Joe Biden nodding to the definition in the White House\u2019s national strategy<\/a> to combat antisemitism, released in late May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 60-page document, the Biden administration referred to the IHRA definition<\/a> \u2014 named after the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which promotes it \u2014 as the \u201cmost prominent\u201d of several definitions of antisemitism and one the administration has \u201cembraced.\u201d But it emphasized that it has no legal value and does not supersede existing laws or constitute binding guidance for public agencies and local government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, by providing neither a rejection nor a full endorsement of the definition, the Biden administration left room for further lobbying for its adoption. Indeed, conservative and pro-Israel groups hailed<\/a> the strategy as a victory<\/a>, even as the single reference fell far short of what they had lobbied for: a full-throated endorsement of the IHRA framework as the \u201csole definition<\/a>\u201d of antisemitism and as the foundation for federal policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n