The IHRA definition chills free enquiry again
JVL Introduction
The Toronto District School Boards strong equity policies are threatened by its 2018 adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Here Paul Weinberg, a journalist and member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, looks at the chilling effects of that definition in relation to antiracist work in schools.
The student equity program advisor in Toronto, Javier Dávila, has regularly emailed batches of background material on complex equity subjects from an anti-oppression perspective that teachers might want to raise in class.
But after mailing a range of relevant materials to teachers on Israel-Palestine in My 2021, he was suspended and investigated. He was reinstated but furious attacks against him continue, with B’nai Brith demanding revocation of his teaching license.
Talk of settler colonialism is standard issue with regard to Canadian history. But not, it would appear with regard to Israel-Palestine
An atmosphere of suspicion prevails – a fear that criticism of Israel will be treated as illegitimate, calling for a Free Palestine as antisemitic, highlighting the nakba as beyond the pale. All because the School Board has adopted the IHRA definition and the bigoted campaigns it is enabling.
This article was originally published by rabble.ca on Mon 9 May 2022. Read the original here.
Anti-racism and the IHRA definition
A Toronto District School Board employee found himself under fire after emailing his colleagues research on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which allegedly violated the IHRA definition of anti-semitism.
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Vexatious claims of anti semitism are hate crimes and should be prosecuted
The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti semitism
Yair Lapid
Israeli Foreign Minister
JC and Bernie Sanders should have gone to court
Yet again we see the IHRA “Definition” being set up
as a template for the identification of antisemitism.
But to a techie pedant like myself the “boxed”
Definition with its “examples” is nothing of the kind for the examples are not covered by the Definition! At best the
examples extend the Definition ..
Even then there is ambiguity in the mention of Israel – as a
“Jewish Collectivity”. Presumably though it
is more than that – and I suggest that to many there is a link
between “Israel” and the activities of the Prophets in what Christians*** call “The Old Testament” ?
Some examples from IHRA then mention the “State” of
Israel as currently exemplified by the behaviour of its Government. However returning to the Old Testament the Prophets are assiduous in their criticism of the rulers of
Biblical Israel – an important consideration when examining
the IHRA “examples”. In Biblical times “Israeli”
was never immune from criticism – on the contrary the
input from its Prophets forms an important part of the
Biblical account.
*** I speak as a Christian here and I hope I am forgiven in my
interpretation of our “Old Testament”.
“Today, a resource-challenged Toronto District School Board relies on external parties, including the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, to provide Holocaust course material for schools.”
Back in 2019, the Simon Wiesenthal Center made probably the most scurrilous attack on Jeremy Corbyn ever made. And that is saying something.
“Wiesenthal Center names UK’s Corbyn top anti-Semite of 2019
… Labour chief placed above US synagogue killer on group’s annual list”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-group-names-uks-corbyn-top-anti-semite-of-2019/
Imagine if Geordie Galloway had been Labour leader during AS Scam, JC is a thoroughly decent man with not an anti semitic bone in his body
But
Oh, Yair Lapid, you must have had a day off, when that module was taught.
The IHRA definition, is used to stop criticism of Israel but it causes people to lose their careers, politicians to be black listed or as in Corbyn’s case, stopped him from becoming Prime Minister. I saved this link, at the time, when I first read it, I was sure it was going to have a negative impact on the IHRA but such is the Power of the Israeli Lobby, It was never brought up again.
Hugh Tomlinson QC
Condemns IHRA
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/hugh-tomlinson-ihra/
Hugh Tomlinsons critique makes for interesting reading –
in that a necessary condition for any specific act to be
antisemitic is that it is informed (inspired?) by
“A hatred of Jews”.
Thus – criticism of Israel’s policies when these involve
(eg) death and destruction in the Occupied areas can
never be described as antisemitic. It follows then that
– nor can any acts which attempt to deter such
policies (eg BDS).