‘Serious drawback’ to US plan
'The strategy has muddied the waters on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism by suggesting that other definitions which do not enjoy IHRA's wide acceptance in the Jewish and general community are nonetheless equally valid'
While there is much in the just-announced United States strategy to combat antisemitism which is commendable, “There is also a serious drawback,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Peter Wertheim told The AJN this week.
President Joe Biden unveiled a multifaceted and broad strategy to combat antisemitism this week following years of spikes in antisemitic incidents.
After a debate among US Jewish groups on how antisemitism should be defined in the strategy, the US government said it recognises the IHRA definition as the “most prominent”, but appreciated others such as the Nexus Document and Jerusalem Declaration.
“The strategy has muddied the waters on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism by suggesting that other definitions which do not enjoy IHRA’s wide acceptance in the Jewish and general community are nonetheless equally valid,” Wertheim said.
“These alternatives to IHRA have been designed mainly to give a free pass to certain forms of anti-Israel discourse which are subtly antisemitic, rather than to convey how antisemitism currently manifests itself. They do not deserve the same legitimacy.”
Comparing the United States and Australia, he said the main significance of the US strategy was that it identifies the need to combat antisemitism, and as a national priority.
While Wertheim said a stand-alone strategy on antisemitism was not suitable in Australia “where other groups are facing a similar or worse surge of racism and bigotry”, the ECAJ has been calling for a suite of anti-hate strategies to address the most prevalent forms of racism and bigotry in Australia, including antisemitism.
“This should of course be done in close consultation with each of the communities concerned,” he said.
“From my recent meetings with the Attorney-General and his advisers I understand that the government is working on a suite of anti-racism measures which will benefit our community.”
This includes, he said, a federal law to ban Nazi symbols and gestures in public, and an overhaul of the current anti-incitement provisions in the Criminal Code, “which we have always said are ineffectual, as the government now seems to accept”.
Wertheim noted the school and public educational measures in the US strategy “consist mostly of a call on others to act”.
“In the US, as in Australia, states and localities set and implement educational standards, ‘but the federal government can play a supporting role’. We will be interested to see what educational strategies are developed, and will be open to learning from them.”
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