Thread by @DanWei55

I thought it was time to do a thread on a useful paper for once. This 🧵 will give an overview of the main arguments against the #IHRADefinition presented in this paper. 1/13

First briefly the definition and the history of how the definition and specifically the examples came about. The 11 examples are NOT a part of the definition and were also not agreed upon by the IHRA Plenary but were published anyway due to pressure from pro-🇮🇱 groups. 2/13

This is the reason why seven of the eleven examples relate to Israel and not “to antisemitism that relates to Jews anywhere in the world”. 3/13

The examples as presented by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance below. Examples relating to Israel marked in blue. 4/13

The paper shows how the examples are used for political purposes by organisations such as Campaign Against Antisemitism. Also, see Tweet 11 of this thread for more examples and uses of the definition. 5/13

It also provides a case study of a blatantly fraudulent use of the IHRA Definition by Luke Akehurst (not an MP) who has manipulated the IHRA document for political purposes. 6/13

3This section shows the meaninglessness of the Hasbara talking point of double standards or which the IHRA examples discusses as “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”. 7/13

This is a section and deserves being pointed out specifically on the issue of 'singling out Israel'.

"people are entitled to focus more attention on human rights problems where their own governments have a particular historical responsibility" 8/13

On the issue of “Israel [as] a racist endeavour” the argument is pretty simple and it is hard to deny that Israel is in fact a racist endeavour. 9/13

While this section on denying self-determination is correct, it leaves out the crucial point that self-determination does not mean a right to a state and especially not a right to an ethnostate. This is why a 1SS is not contrary to self-determination principles. 10/13

The last two sections of the paper are worth reading in its entirety (open access link at the end of thread). The penultimate section is a very useful discussion and resource of the political uses of the definition. 11/13

Followed by a discussion of alternative definitions of antisemitism and the usefulness or not of institutionalised definitions in general. 12/13

It is important that we counter Israel propaganda not only on here but also on an institutional level and this means dismantling the tools that are used to spread it such as the IHRA Definition. 13/13

You can find the article in its entirety here:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

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