Thread by @PSCupdates

In an article in @JewishChron last Thursday, Dave Rich deliberately misconstrued PSC’s position on the IHRA in order to reinforce his false assertion that the IHRA definition isn’t being used to suppress campaigning for Palestinian rights. (1/12)

PSC wrote to @JewishChron requesting a right of reply and a correction. This has been refused. We will be pursuing this and in the meantime, let’s deal with the facts. (2/12)

There are many examples of the IHRA acting to suppress activism for Palestinian rights.

Here's just one notorious one: (3/12)

theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/a…

Tower Hamlets Council refused to allow a bike ride fundraiser for sick children in Gaza to finish in a council run park, because officials feared that references to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and to Israel as an apartheid state might contradict the IHRA. (4/12)

The Tower Hamlets example speaks to the point made by PSC in a recently launched legal guide to students, which Rich deliberately misconstrues. The IHRA conflates legitimate criticism of Israel with antisemitism… (5/12)

It therefore focuses a lens of antisemitism on any event or person advocating for Palestinian rights, thus creating a climate of fear which leads to a chilling effect. The aim is to pressure public bodies to ban events in order to avoid accusations of antisemitism… (6/12)

…Even though the IHRA definition may not be used legally to enforce the accusation or even be directly cited. So in Tower Hamlets, fearing such an accusation, the council banned the event but gave another “official“ reason for doing so. (7/12)

Dave Rich is comfortable with this dynamic. He never spoke out against the Big Ride being banned, he didn’t speak out when MPs petitioned Downing St to ban all events at universities that called Israel an apartheid state, citing the IHRA: (8/12)

matthewofford.co.uk/news/matthew-j…

His waving away of all criticisms of IHRA as unfounded means ignoring not only the 200 eminent scholars of antisemitism, Holocaust & Hebrew studies who signed the JDA but the Institute for Race Relations, eminent lawyers & Palestinian civil society (9/12)

palestinecampaign.org/pscs-response-…

Those genuinely concerned about tackling antisemitism will challenge the clear evidence of the IHRA being used to suppress the facts of Palestinian oppression and to call for action to address it. (10/12)

Dave Rich would have credibility if he openly stated that he doesn't believe it is antisemitic to call Israel an apartheid state, to challenge its racist laws & policies, & to call for BDS to hold it to account for its violations of international law & Palestinian rights. (11/12)

His failure to do so + his willful misrepresentation of the evidence leads us to conclude that his key motivation is to safeguard the primacy of a definition that does little to tackle genuine antisemitism & is primarily concerned with shielding Israel from accountability (12/12)

UPDATE: After pressure from PSC @JewishChron has altered Dave Rich’s article which is to be welcomed. However it still fails to address the evidence of how the IHRA is being used to suppress legitimate criticism of Israel - a process about which he seems spectacularly unconcerned

Dave Rich and CST have been complicit in promulgating a definition that they know is being used to silence the voice of an oppressed people, and turning a deaf ear to all of those who point out this reality.