You need to understand how crazy this antisemitism bill is that just passed the House with wide bipartisan approval. The law requires the Department of Education to adopt the definition of antisemitism provided by something called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
The legislation itself never says what the definition is. All it says is that the definition is whatever this other group says it is. Which is batshit bonkers already because it grants the force of law to whatever the IHRA happens to decree on the subject. But it gets worse.
The bill also specifies that the “examples” of antisemitism that IHRA subjectively came up with will be included in the legal definition. What happens when IHRA adds new examples? Well I guess the legal definition changes. Why is some organization being given this kind of legal power? That is never explained by anyone involved in writing this bill. And it gets worse.
What are the examples of antisemitism? Some of them are non-controversial. They say that calling for the death of Jews is antisemitic. Obviously it is.
But the IHRA also says that a very wide swath of criticism directed at the Israeli government are antisemitic too. In fact any criticism of Israeli policy that the IHRA considers a “double standard” will now legally be classified as antisemitic hate speech.
You also aren’t allowed to accuse Israel of genocide or racism. Many people would say such accusations are false. But even if you find them to be false, should any criticism of a foreign government ever be legally prohibited by our government under any circumstance? Obviously not.
The cherry on top is that none of this has anything to do with what’s happening on college campuses right now. The chaos could be easily squashed simply by enforcing existing laws against trespassing, burglary, vandalism, etc.
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