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There is a growing chasm between Jewish liberals in the UK and North America on the IHRA. The Reform movement now warns against codifying the IHRA "into policy that would trigger potentially problematic punitive action to circumscribe speech". https://www.jta.org/2021/01/25/united-states/reform-movement-ihra-definition-of-anti-semitism-is-helpful-but-should-not-be-codified-into-law
2/ While in the UK, a broad Jewish consensus - including liberal voices - continues to promote the IHRA, as shown the letter of Jewish student societies to the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jan/22/jewish-students-are-protected-by-the-ihra-definition-of-antisemitism
3/ This divergence has much to do with the different contexts. In the US, the IHRA was used by the Trump administration as part of an anti-Palestinian campaign - e.g. against human rights organisations - while the same administration enabled antisemitic white nationalism.
4/ While in the UK, the debate around antisemitism is still framed by Labour's failures on this issue - and Labour's rowing back on the IHRA in 2018 was one of the key moments of that crisis, the moment in which the definition became a symbol and a litmus test.
5/ Ultimately, however, the definition is the same text on both sides of the ocean. And if the definition is used to stifle debate on Palestine/Israel in the US, there is no reason to assume such attempts will not intensify in the UK.
6/ But if we zoom out, the question is bigger than the IHRA - which is only a tool. The question is how we understand the intersection between Israel/Palestine related discourse and antisemitism. And there, there is no consensus - not in the US and not the UK.
7/ There was a wide Jewish consensus that Labour had a serious problem because it involved so much straightforward antisemitism - conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, Rothschild references etc. And that realisation cut across positions on Israel/Palestine.
8/ But when we focus on Israel-related discourse, there is no clear consensus. For some, equal rights for Palestinians means antisemitism - while many liberal Jews would disagree. https://twitter.com/YairWallach/status/1352405633807618048?s=20
9/ This debate is not going away anytime soon. The questions on the present and future of Israel/Palestine, and of diaspora-Israel relations, remain fraught, and that, inevitably has implication to how we understand as anti-Jewish racism. /End
