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2/ Here are two definitions of antisemitism that are more careful on precisely these issues:
1. The Jerusalem Declaration On Antisemitism (2020)
https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/
Excerpt: Examples of conduct that are NOT antisemitic: "11. Supporting the Palestinian demand for justice and the full grant of their political, national, civil and human rights, as encapsulated in international law…12. Criticizing or opposing Zionism as a form of nationalism, or arguing for a variety of constitutional arrangements for Jews and Palestinians…13. Evidence-based criticism of Israel as a state. This includes its institutions and founding principles. It also includes its policies and practices, domestic and abroad, such as the conduct of Israel in the West Bank and Gaza."
2. The Nexus Document (2021)
https://nexusproject.us/the-nexus-document/
Excerpt: "Using accusations of antisemitism as a tool to suppress criticism of Israel is dangerous on many levels. It distracts attention from bona fide antisemitism, infringes on the principle of freedom of expression, and militates against constructive dialogue and debate among people with differing opinions."
1/ #Harvard just adopted the #IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of #antisemitism for the purpose of campus rules on harassment and discrimination.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/01/harvard-settles-antisemitism-lawsuits
If you're new to these definitional difficulties, there are many prominent and non-equivalent definitions of antisemitism, and the debates about them can be bitter.
I'm a Harvard employee of Jewish descent who lost family in the Holocaust, and I'm not happy with the recent decision.
The IHRA definition (2016) is not careful to distinguish criticism of #Jews from criticism of #Israel. On the contrary, most of its 11 examples of antisemitism deliberately mix the two.
https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism
🧵
Quoting Daniel Blatman and Amos Goldberg (historians of the #Holocaust and genocide at the Hebrew University):
[…] No one gave the soldiers in the Netzarim Corridor, who are killing innocent people, an order to do so. But those who do it (certainly not all the soldiers) understand that no harm will come to them. A combination of hints from above (from politicians and army officers, such as Brigadier General Yehuda Vach) and murderous recklessness from below—this is how genocide is carried out.
Blatman and Goldberg, who specialize in the #Holocaust and genocide, argue that #Israel's actions in #Gaza constitute #genocide, emphasizing that while not identical to the Holocaust, the events share the same underlying crime of extermination.
They refute counterarguments by pointing to historical precedents where democratic nations committed atrocities deemed genocidal, such as during the #Algerian and #Vietnam wars. The scholars highlight the devastating impact of Israel's military operations, including the high number of civilian casualties, the destruction of infrastructure, and the dehumanizing rhetoric employed, concluding that these factors align with the definition of genocide as the destruction of a collective's ability to exist.
[…] Genocide is any action that causes the destruction of a collective's ability to exist, not necessarily its physical killing. It is estimated that nearly 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 110,000 have been wounded. The number of those who remain buried under the rubble is unknown, and may never be known. The vast majority of the victims are uninvolved civilians. 90% of the population in Gaza has been displaced from their homes and lives in dire conditions that increase mortality.
[…] The killing of children, starvation, the destruction of infrastructure, including the infrastructure of the medical system, the destruction of most homes, including the obliteration of entire neighborhoods and towns like Jabalia and Beit Lahia, the ethnic cleansing in the northern Gaza Strip, the destruction of all universities and most cultural institutions and mosques, the destruction of government and organizational infrastructure, mass graves, the destruction of local food production infrastructure and water reservoirs—all of these paint a clear genocidal picture. Gaza as a human, national-collective entity no longer exists. This is exactly what genocide looks like.
[…] In this context, it is worth noting that most acts of genocide are perceived by their perpetrators as an act of self-defense against their victims. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict undoubtedly belongs to this category; the genocide in Gaza is perceived by most Israelis as a defensive war that came after the horrific attack by Hamas on October 7th.
[…] Can intent be proven in the case of Gaza? Aside from the idea of using an atomic bomb, Israeli politicians, senior military officials, and media figures have made many statements indicating genocidal intent, and all of them have been documented: There are no innocents in Gaza; we will carry out a second Nakba; we must destroy Amalek, and more. And yet, the concept of intent is very problematic. William Schabas, one of the leading jurists on the subject of genocide, explains this in his important book, Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes, in which he analyzes the decisions of the special international tribunals that tried the perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
[…] Schabas states that proving the intent required to convict a person or a state of genocide is much more demanding and complex than proving the intent required in a regular criminal murder trial. Especially when it comes to a state—after all, on what basis can the intent of a state be determined? If the murderers carry out their actions while making a declaration, instruction, speech, or the like, that has genocidal significance, it is of course easier to establish that intent. In the absence of such material, the prosecution must rely on evidence from the crime itself and the persistence with which the murderers carried out the killing, which indicates a clear desire to destroy the group.
[…] The appropriate definition for the atrocities that Israel is causing in Gaza is an issue that has been under discussion for over a year among researchers, jurists, political activists, journalists, and others—a discussion that most Israelis are not exposed to. Indeed, for the tens of thousands of children killed, wounded, and orphaned, and for the babies freezing to death in Gaza, it does not matter what definition will eventually be given to this crime by the International Court of Justice or by historians.
Note: order of quotes different than in the original article
@histodons
@israel
@palestine
#IsraelOccupation
#IsraelWarCrimes
#GazaGenocide
#Palestine
I was already signed up for reading everything that Andrei Cimpian ever publishes but this just re-subscribed me
"Why the belief in meritocracy is so pervasive"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661324003292
🚨BREAKING🚨 The MIT Coalition for Palestine representing 20 student and faculty groups just released an 83-page report 'MIT Science for Genocide' on how MIT conducts war research on campus sponsored directly by the Israeli military.
Read: https://archive.org/details/mit-science-for-genocide #antireport
For context, 14 tons is almost 3x the average CO2 emissions of the average EU citizen.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
One flight. One billionaire.
An excellent point by @PeterBeinart, especially in light of the despicable attacks on synagogues: "The problem that we have in fighting against people who conflate Israel & Jews & therefore take out there anger against Israel on Jews... is that we are asking them to make a distinction b/w Israel as a state & Jews as a people... but the organized American Jewish community is not making that distinction ourselves ... instead they are saying, 'being a Zionist is inherent in being Jewish' ... ...and so when the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom said a few years ago, 'Zionism leaps from every day of the Siddur,' the Jewish prayer book, again, very strange statement given that we've had prayer books since long before Herzl & Pinsker came around in the late 19th century, then why shouldn't someone write 'Free Palestine' on a Jewish prayer book? ... since you've just said the prayer book is a political pamphlet for the State of Israel." Full interview: https://t.co/AnenVZb7Hg
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