In a letter to UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres, 60 organisations say the IHRA definition has been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic.
Dozens of rights teams have urged United Nations Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres not to undertake the controversial Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, saying it has been used to suppress criticism of Israel.
In a letter printed on Monday, 60 human and civil rights organisations stated the UN shouldn’t use the definition in its motion plan towards anti-Semitism and subsequent actions.
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It went on to ask the UN to make sure that its efforts to fight anti-Semitism don’t “inadvertently embolden or endorse insurance policies” that undermine elementary human rights, together with the appropriate to talk and organise in assist of Palestinian rights.
“The IHRA definition has usually been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic, and thus chill and typically suppress, non-violent protest, activism and speech important of Israel and/or Zionism, together with within the US and Europe,” the letter stated.
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Israeli rights group B’Tselem, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have been among the many signatories.In response to the IHRA’s working definition, “Anti-Semitism is a sure notion of Jews, which can be expressed as hatred towards Jews. Rhetorical and bodily manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed towards Jewish or non-Jewish people and/or their property, towards Jewish group establishments and non secular amenities.”
The assertion stated the definition has been used to focus on professors, college students and grassroots organisations that specific assist for Palestinian human rights.
Citing the instance of the UK, the place the definition was adopted nationally, the letter highlighted two cases the place universities in 2017 banned a number of actions deliberate for “Israel Apartheid Week”, citing the IHRA definition.
The organisations famous that main specialists of anti-Semitism, and teachers specialising in Holocaust and Jewish research have additionally criticised the IHRA’s definition, “arguing that it restricts reputable criticism of Israel and harms the struggle towards antisemitism”.
As an alternative, the teams stated two definitions which were put ahead since 2021, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexus Doc, have been higher options.
“Whereas acknowledging that criticism of Israel will be antisemitic, these different definitions set out extra clearly what constitutes antisemitism and supply steerage surrounding the contours of reputable speech and motion round Israel and Palestine,” they stated.
The letter warned that if the UN have been to endorse the IHRA definition “in any form or type”, UN officers engaged on points regarding Israel and Palestine might discover themselves “unjustly accused of antisemitism primarily based on the IHRA definition”.
“The identical goes for quite a few UN companies, departments, committees, panels and/or conferences, whose work touches on points associated to Israel and Palestine, in addition to for civil society actors and human rights defenders participating with the UN system,” it added.
The letter is the newest try by human rights advocates to induce the UN to not undertake the IHRA definition. In November, greater than 120 students referred to as on the world physique to reject the definition, as a result of its “divisive and polarising” impact.