Groups Unable To Criticize Israel Without Nazi Analogies Very Concerned About IHRA Antisemitism Definition

“This will have a chilling effect on free expression. In fact it smacks of fascism – or am I not allowed to say that, either?”

Washington, March 11 – Progressive activists whose default rhetoric involving the world’s only Jewish state involves overwrought comparisons to death camps, yellow stars of David, and Nuremburg Laws expressed their misgivings again this week at the Biden administration’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism today, in particular the provision that antisemitism includes comparisons of the Jewish State’s policies to those of the Third Reich.

Representatives of Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, Students for Justice in Palestine, and other organizations gathered in the nation’s capital today to rally against the adoption of the IHRA standard, and to argue that defining as antisemitic analogies between Israel and Nazi Germany in effect silences legitimate criticism of Israeli policy.

“How the hell else are we supposed to give voice to our objections?” wondered Ali Latdam of Students for Justice in Palestine. “When you have a nation engaging in literal genocide, mass dispossession, and starving out the native population – if you want the statistics I can pull them out of my backside for you – morality demands that we make such analogies! Jews are the new Nazis. That’s all there is to it, and there is no other way to talk about Palestinian rights.”

“Talk about stifling free speech,” added J Street U member Klu Liss. “This will have a chilling effect on free expression. In fact it smacks of fascism – or am I not allowed to say that, either?”

Some activists even accused the Biden administration and the IHRA itself of fomenting antisemitism. “It’s axiomatic that antisemitism, like everything else bad, is Israel’s fault,” explained Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada. “Well, I mean, for purposes of this discussion, anyway, we’ll posit that antisemitism is bad. Leave it at that, though it might make some progressives uncomfortable. Not necessarily me, you understand, just some, who might or might not include me in their ranks. So if limiting criticism of Israel to non-Nazi analogies, and – it almost pains me to say it – ruling out holding Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s policies – are off limits, that leaves Israel free to continue manufacturing antisemitism, which they produce from harvested organs of Palestinian children! It doesn’t even make sense from the perspective of fighting antisemitism.”

“That’s why I think the administration is being controlled by a sinister Jewish cabal,” he added. “As you can see, it’s in their interest to stifle criticism of the Jewish conspiracy that controls the media, the banks, and most important governments. Now we’re not even allowed to criticize that without being labeled Jew-haters!”

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