US House passes controversial bill that expands definition of anti-Semitism
www.aljazeera.com
Rights groups warn that the definition could further chill freedom of speech as protests continue on college campuses.

The United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would expand the federal definition of anti-Semitism, despite opposition from civil liberties groups.

The bill passed the House on Wednesday by a margin of 320 to 91, and it is largely seen as a reaction to the ongoing antiwar protests unfolding on US university campuses. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

If the bill were to become law, it would codify a definition of anti-Semitism created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities”.

According to the IHRA, that definition also encompasses the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity”.

The group also includes certain examples in its definition to illustrate anti-Semitism. Saying, for instance, that “the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” would be deemed anti-Semitic under its terms. The definition also bars any comparison between “contemporary Israeli policy” and “that of the Nazis”.

Rights groups, however, have raised concerns the definition nevertheless conflates criticism of the state of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism.

In a letter sent to lawmakers on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urged House members to vote against the legislation, saying federal law already prohibits anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.

“Instead, it would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism.”

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  • Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    Nazis: “we will fight to the death for your right to speak it!”

    Divest israel: “Believe it or not, jail, right away.”

    • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
      0·
      6 months ago

      Nazi rhetoric already fits the definition of antisemitism though.

      Calling for a divestment of Israel isn’t being made illegal or even defined as antisemitism by this bill, so both examples don’t really make sense.

  • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    If this happened under Trump liberals would be up in arms. But it’s happening under Biden, so they don’t give a shit.

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
      0·
      6 months ago

      Democrats, Republicans, its the same picture.

      Dems don’t even talk about Republicans or their policies anymore, they just namedrop trump then start preemptively blaming leftists for their losses as they tell leftists to eat dick and die.

    • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Once Obama got in office, Democrat stans suddenly didn’t care about the Global War(s) on Terrorism anymore. They were silent on his star chamber as well. It was a real wake-up call for me.

      • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Hey!

        Aw who am I kidding, I know my country’s bloodstained history despite my public education. I wish I could say it was in our past and that we’re better now, but we’re literally funding this exact genocide. 🫠

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
          0·
          6 months ago

          I know my country’s bloodstained history despite my public education.

          I fucking can’t stand that this is a thing. I experienced the same thing and honestly it was “earth shattering.”

          When you’re a kid and you’re brainwashed into believing “America the Great” and how we’re always the Good Guys™ always Fighting for Democracy™ only to graduate and then learn on your own how absolutely fucking disgusting we are as a nation it absolutely fucks with your head and how you trust information.

          These fucking morons can’t figure out where so many conspiracy theorists come from? It’s from people like me who find out their entire social studies class was a fucking lie to indoctrinate you and then fall down a rabbit hole when they start learning about actual history… Thankfully I was “smart” enough to dig my way out of that hole before becoming some crazed Neonazi but still… Damage was done.

  • Nobody@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Adding IHRA’s definition to the law would allow the federal Department of Education to restrict funding and other resources to campuses perceived as tolerating anti-Semitism.

    The campus crackdown is definitely going too far. Vietnam War protestors were treated the same way. It escalated, and the cops opened fire at Kent State.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      The state guard fired on students at Kent State not the cops.

      The difference today is kids got guns and will fire back.

    • Arcturus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      6 months ago

      Always the same map

      A bit surprising that “israel” didn’t vote against it, but that would be a bit too on the nose I guess.

        • Alsephina@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          China didn’t colonize the world like western Europe and Japan did, then make neocolonial institutions like the IMF and World Bank to preserve those colonial relations.

          They’ve mostly escaped colonialism and become the manufacturing hub of the world now, but wealth isn’t being extracted from the Global South / “former” colonies to China like they are being transferred to the imperial Core.

    • cobra89@beehaw.org
      0·
      6 months ago

      It seems like the US voted against it because Russia was using it as a political ploy and excuse to try and invade Ukraine. (Ukraine is “full of Nazis” sound familiar?)

      That’s why Ukraine voted against it too.

      The United States says it was one of three countries to vote against a U.N. resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism over freedom of speech issues and concerns that Russia was using it to carry out political attacks against its neighbors.

      Ukraine and Palau were the other no votes.

      “We condemn without reservation all forms of religious and ethnic intolerance or hatred at home and around the world,” said Deputy U.S. Representative to the Economic and Social Council Stefanie Amadeo, explaining the U.S. vote.

      “This resolution’s recommendations to limit freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the right to peaceful assembly contravene the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and must be opposed,” Amadeo said.

      The UN resolution wanted to quash “antisemitic” protests very much like the ones we’re seeing in the US right now. So really if you’re against the Bill this post is about, you should be okay with the US voting no on that UN resolution.

    • rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml
      0·
      6 months ago

      I get the feeling a lot of our more vocal free speech absolutists are going to be conspicuously quiet on this one.

  • Feydaikin@beehaw.org
    0·
    6 months ago

    And what’s so bad about being called an antisemite?

    I mean, personally I’m highly again all types of organised religion. The abrahamic ones included.

    So the shoe fits, I guess.

    • sweetpotato@lemmy.ml
      0·
      6 months ago

      What does it mean to be against a religion? As in you don’t follow it? Or that you oppress people following it?

    • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      It would also help if more than a handful of people in the House knew semitic is a pretty archaic term and would include Palestinians in Gaza as well as Israelis and people from several other countries as well.

      Protected classes are race, religion, national origin, age, pregnancy status, gender, citizenship, disability or veteran, family status or generic information. Nobody gets protections for genocide.

    • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
      0·
      6 months ago

      Got your cart before the horse: the US controls Israel, the control Israeli lobbyists have over it is secondary to that.

      • impure9435@kbin.run
        0·
        6 months ago

        If the US truly controlled Israel, they could force them to comply with UN resolutions, force them to ban settlements or force them into a ceasefire. The US built Israel, but these criminals are now strong enough not to have to listen to the US or anyone, not even the UN or the ICC.

        • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
          0·
          6 months ago

          If the US truly controlled Israel, they could force them to comply with UN resolutions, force them to ban settlements or force them into a ceasefire.

          Could, but why would they want to? They have a little buddy doing their dirty work for them.

  • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I guess I’m technically an antisemite then because Israel is behaving like fucking Nazis. They’re doing a genocide and they’re invading and settling. Netanyahu deserves to go to the same hell that Hitler deserved, and unfortunately also just like Hitler, I seriously doubt that America will be the ones sending him there. I hope he blows his brains out in disgrace as the walls close in on him before he can be Gaddafi’d in the street. Fuck that piece of shit to death with a bayonet. Just one itty bitty war crime in response to his katamari of war crimes, and it can serve as a deterrent against future war crimes. It’s like bombing for peace, rectal remix.

    And yes, I also condemn Hamas. The victims are the civilians who didn’t ask for any of this bullshit.

    • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
      0·
      6 months ago

      He can be Gaddafi’d in the street. Fuck that piece of shit to death with a bayonet. Just

      Fuck you, piece of shit imperialist. You’re as bad as the Zionists.

      I also condemn Hamas.

      Pathetic. How dare they resist their genocide!? Uppity bastards.

      Even when you’re trying to pretend to be some kind of supporter of justice you still can’t hide that you’re an ugly removed.

      • DaDragon@kbin.social
        0·
        6 months ago

        What? do you really think that that Netanyahu is some sort of saint with his response to the October 7 attacks? It was a political choice to let things happen to the point they did.

        And if you’re on Hamas’ side in all of this, do you really think that nobody targeted by them was innocent?

    • Lojcs@lemm.ee
      0·
      6 months ago

      This was removed for bigotry?? Are mods following that policy already?

      Edit: and the comments below it too.

      Edit 2: the below comments didn’t even have a call to violence. What’s going on mods?

      • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
        0·
        6 months ago

        This guy lauds the empire’s overthrow and murder of a state later resulting in untold human suffering and then condemns a peoples’ resistance to a genocide. Amazing.

        • Lojcs@lemm.ee
          0·
          6 months ago

          And that’s bigotry? Is every comment you don’t agree with supposed to be removed?

          • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
            0·
            6 months ago

            I don’t agree with the comment being removed. I think the fediverse is worse than reddit for its censorious childishness. But I can see why it could be considered bigotry.

      • Alsephina@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        The comment said “I condemn Hamas” aka the group fighting back against genocide.

        • miridius@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          Just because one side of a conflict is evil doesn’t automatically make the other side good. Evil can fight evil, and when it does we should condemn both sides. Hamas have literally said that their goal is to genocide the Israelis, if you think that’s ok then that’s terribly hypocritical of you. The only reason Israel is succeeding in that goal and Hamas are not is because USA is tipping the scales with their arms shipments etc

        • Lojcs@lemm.ee
          0·
          6 months ago

          So? Are those the magical words that justify removing any comment? Hamas isn’t Palestine or Palestinians and condemning a group that killed hundreds shouldn’t be a controversial statement, much less bigotry. And the irony of this happening in the thread about Isreal trying to pass a similar law for themselves…

          I can understand you and other commenters expressing your opinions but the fact that not even the mods are keeping up the pretense of impartiality is insane

          • Pollux@leminal.space
            0·
            6 months ago

            There is no impartiality for genocide.

            The Viet Cong killed hundreds in the same way, and so have all successful revolutionary groups in the past. Decolonization is violent, if you don’t like it don’t colonize in the first place.

            • Lojcs@lemm.ee
              0·
              6 months ago

              There is no impartiality for genocide.

              Fuck off with hiding behind “but genocide!” whenever someone disagrees with you and double fuck you for implying that I or those other people support genocide. No matter how hard tankie politics dictates imperialsits (‘them’) and rest of the world (‘us’) are polar opposites, there are people that share some of your values and don’t share others. This includes people who see both hamas and isreali gvt as evil. If your ideology has answers ready for everything and doesn’t need you to impartially think to come to conclusions that’s a bullshit ideology.

              Edit: Reminds me of religious nuts thinking atheists are evil because if they don’t follow every rule in the book they must be breaking all of the rules and you certainly can’t have your own moral compass.

              Edit: And Hamas, even with …

              Are you seriously arguing that killing less civilians than the isreali military somehow makes hamas good? If they hadn’t attacked much of the violence since then wouldn’t have happened and those 30 thousand Palestinians would at least be alive, even if not free. How hard is it to understand that multiple things can be correct?

              I can understand why Hamas would choose to do what they did when they did it. Cornered animal lashes out. But it’s incomprehensible to me how anyone looking from the outside thinks attacking Isreal with anything less than a takeover force was a good idea, especially considering that in hindsight it was a terrible one.

              • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
                0·
                6 months ago

                “Anything I don’t like is a tankie”, Lemmy politics equivalent to the right wing’s use of woke.

                Followed by the 30,000x version of “they wouldn’t have died if they just did what the police told them!”

                • Lojcs@lemm.ee
                  0·
                  6 months ago

                  You’re saying the people advocating to remove comments that condemn Hamas or Gaddafi, accuse people of obeying the ‘empire’ and bring up genocide to claim moral high ground aren’t tankies?

        • Sagittarii@lemm.ee
          0·
          6 months ago

          They would be condemning the Viet Cong for using the exact same strategies Hamas does (taking hostages, using tunnels and guerilla warfare, etc) and having the same goal of driving out an occupying force to reunite their country, yet they have the audacity to claim they’re an antizionist.

          Campus protests and the pigs dispersing them are also paralleling the Vietnam war.

      • john89@lemmy.ca
        0·
        6 months ago

        There are already bad actors infesting lemmy mod teams.

        We gotta fight back and be persistent, or else this place will become another censorship hellhole like reddit.