House passes GOP Antisemitism Awareness Act bill
[url]https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-vote-antisemitism-bill-campus-arrests-rcna150170[/url]
The House on Wednesday passed a bill aimed at combating antisemitism as pro-Palestinian protests roil colleges across the United States.
The measures passed in a 320-91 vote.
The bill, titled the Antisemitism Awareness Act, would mandate that the Education Department adopt the broad definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an intergovernmental group, to enforce anti-discrimination laws.
[url]https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism[/url]
The international group defines antisemitism as:
- Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
- Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
- Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
- Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
- Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
- Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
- Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
- Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
- Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
- Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
- Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters on Tuesday that she wouldn't support Lawler's bill and argued that Republicans are weaponizing antisemitism.
“We all have to continue to speak out against antisemitism and be clear that we don’t like — we will not tolerate antisemitism any more than we tolerate Islamophobia or any of the other hatreds and discriminations that are out there,” she said.
Jayapal also argued that the bill “has a definition that is so broad” that many Jewish groups do not support it.
“So why would you do that? Except if you want to weaponize antisemitism, and you want to use it as a political ploy,” she said. “Let’s remember that many of these Republicans didn’t say a word when Donald Trump and others in Charlottesville other places were saying truly antisemitic things.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also said she would vote against the bill over a disagreement with an example of antisemitism listed in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition, which referred to using "symbols and images" such as "claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel" to describe Israel or Israelis.
Greene argued in a post to X that the bill "could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews."
Activists working to counter antisemitism have pointed out that Jews have been scapegoated throughout history for events including the crucification of Jesus and that these claims have been used to justify violence against Jews.