Partial IHRA adoption not enough
Parliamentary Friends of IHRA co-chair Josh Burns said while he welcomed the step towards adopting the definition, doing so without its examples is short sighted.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) have written to La Trobe University criticising its partial adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
The university announced last week that in adopting the definition, it had decided to exclude its 11 examples and instead use the guidelines of the problematic Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism “in order to preserve free speech and academic freedom”.
ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim said the university “has well and truly botched this decision”.
“No Jewish community has accepted the Jerusalem Declaration, which has been extensively critiqued for its permissive approach to certain forms of discourse which the vast majority of Jews regard as antisemitic,” he said.
He said the university administration can pretend to itself that it knows better than the Jewish community what constitutes antisemitism, “but others will see this as ignorant, condescending and callously insensitive”.
Australasian Union of Jewish Students president Alissa Foster said La Trobe deciding to pick and choose what definitions of antisemitism best suit its needs proves that universities are not willing to listen to Jewish students and that they do not understand what antisemitism is. “The university’s decision focuses more on pleasing those with little understanding of our community,” she said.
ZFA president Jeremy Leibler said, “The recent ZFA-AUJS survey on campus antisemitism revealed that 73 per cent of La Trobe respondents have hidden their Jewish identity whilst on campus. This is well above the already-shocking national average. Clearly, antisemitism is a problem at La Trobe University. We fear that La Trobe’s actions will make things worse.”
He added, “The Jerusalem Declaration was drafted solely and purposefully to undermine the IHRA definition. It has numerous problems, not least its contention that ‘opposing Zionism as a form of nationalism’ is not antisemitic. Zionism is the movement for Jewish self-determination. Denying Jews such a right is antisemitic.”
Leibler said The ZFA will also be raising the issue with the Victorian education minister.
Jewish Community Council of Victoria president Daniel Aghion said, “We regret that it has rejected, in part, the Victorian Jewish community’s own preferred definition of antisemitism.”
A university spokesperson said the university undertook significant consultation with a range of community groups, including the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, the Australian Jewish Democratic Society, Jewish Voices for Peace and Justice (NSW) and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.
Parliamentary Friends of IHRA co-chair Josh Burns said while he welcomed the step towards adopting the definition, doing so without its examples is short sighted.
“[They] provide an important framework that allows institutions to better understand the different manifestations of antisemitism and how to address them,” he said.
The AJN has seen a message from a La Trobe student who asked to remain anonymous, who said, “I am not a Jew, but I have several friends who are Jewish. The level of vitriol, bigotry and hatred they face on a regular basis is sickening.”
The La Trobe spokesperson said the university does not tolerate discrimination of any kind, including racism, and students and staff who are victims of, or who witness, discriminatory behaviour should contact its Safer Community services.
The ECAJ attached a copy of the just-released Jewish University Experience Survey into campus antisemitism with the letter.
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