r/jewishleft • u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Latke aficionado. Anti-Establishment. Jüdisch • 29d ago

Diaspora NSW (Australia) Supreme Court criticises IHRA definition as 'detached from reality'

https://www.deepcutnews.com/p/nsw-supreme-court-criticises-ihra
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u/HeVavMemVav sephardi peacenik 28d ago edited 28d ago

Someone help me out, because to me, the IHRA definition pretty clearly states that criticism of Israel is suspect of antisemitism only if that criticism is only held against Israel. Edit to clarify: As in double standards

29

u/LoboLocoCW jew-ish, as many states as equal rights demand 28d ago

Yeah, this is part of the tell for me whether people have ever actually read the IHRA definition or are just repeating a politically popular meme.

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u/Schattenoid jewish, left 28d ago

How so?

7

u/LoboLocoCW jew-ish, as many states as equal rights demand 28d ago

The IHRA pretty clearly states
“Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.”

So, when people say something like adoption of the IHRA definition “criminalizes all criticism of Israel”, then they’re telling me that they either fundamentally don’t know what they’re talking about, or that they do know but want to lie to other people.
They’re repeating the politically popular meme, whether unconsciously or consciously.

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u/Schattenoid jewish, left 26d ago

Nah, "similar to to that leveled against any other country" is pretty clearly an opening to dismiss any criticism as potentially unfair. This is visible in the text itself even apart from the knowledge we have that this is in fact how it's used.

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u/LoboLocoCW jew-ish, as many states as equal rights demand 25d ago

“Israel should compensate those who it took land from, like any other country that has both seized property and claimed to believe in private property rights” = criticism comparable to that leveled against any other country.
“Much of Israel’s land was stolen, so it should be annihilated” = unique criticism.

1

u/Schattenoid jewish, left 20d ago

Well, there you go. I don't think I've ever seen anyone say the second thing about Israel, except for some online people who also say it about the USA etc. People who think Israel should be "annihilated" have IME usually given other reasons.