1/ In the spirit of being fair to those who are concerned about the potentially problematic effect that the IHRA definition of antisemitism, I want to highlight this worrying motion which I am told is before the @BarnetCouncil meeting tonight barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s477…
2/ It's an attempt to prevent Barnet Council from supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement which encourages people not to buy Israeli goods or associate with Israeli professionals (in a nutshell - but it's more complicated than that)
3/ If passed, it would prevent Barnet allowing its spaces to be used for BDS, renting buildings to "affiliates, organizations or individuals who support the activities of the antisemitic BDS movement" amongst other things. 
4/ 3 points. 1st this is based on a misunderstanding of the IHRA definition, which should allow for political activities such as BDS. There may be instances where an individual supports BDS but is using antisemitic tropes to justify it, but generally BDS should be absolutely fine
5/ 2nd, just because someone uses IHRA to justify banning political behaviour they don't like doesn't undermine IHRA itself, which is context specific and allows for political speech - if applied properly. This important, see my longer discussion
6/ I really want to emphasise this point as you have to distinguish between how people *think* they can use the IHRA definition with how they actually *can use it*. If you read the justification section of this motion you see how jumbled up it really is.
7/ 3rd, this motion if passed would be a attack on free expression and would undoubtedly be struck down in the courts. Just this bit alone which prevents *people who support BDS* using council services would be a breach of article 10 of the Human Rights Act (free expression)
8/ I live in Barnet and I know the councillors are sensible - I very much hope that this motion doesn't even come close to being passed. Happy to discuss with anyone who wants to before the meeting.
Useful clarification from a Barnet Councillor
9/ Another important point to note about this attempt to ban BDS in Barnet - all of the justifications used in the resolution appear in the Labour draft definition, except the first bullet which isn't in the IHRA and appears to have been plucked from somewhere else.
10/ Here are the relevant sections from the Labour draft definition. They are almost but not exactly the same, but if the IHRA can be used against BDS (which it can't - see above) then the Labour draft definition could be used equally
