Arizona claims questioning Israel’s right to exist is antisemitic

Arizona (QNN)- Arizona schools are now required to teach that saying that the occupation state of ‘Israel’ should not have a right to exist is antisemitic, KAWC News reports.
The legislation was passed last week in a 16-14 vote in the Arizona Senate.
Every Democratic lawmaker reportedly voted against the legislation, saying that it would hinder talks of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Regarding Israeli sovereignty, the resolution falsely claimed that the area was granted to the Jews “through the oldest recorded deed, as recorded in the Old Testament.”
It also claimed that the Jewish presence in ‘Israel’ has “remained constant throughout the past 4,000 years of history,” and claimed that ‘Israel’ is not an occupation.
The resolution included the working definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
The IHRA definition has been formally adopted by the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the United States, the European Parliament and more than 30 other countries.
However, the IHRA definition includes problematic examples of antisemitism that have been criticised by human rights groups as well as some liberal Zionist organisations.
Some of the most controversial examples of antisemitism provided by the IHRA include banning anyone from “applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation”.
Another example presented in the IHRA definition: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg, by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
The definition is simply designed to silence criticism of ‘Israel’ and of Zionism by equating this criticism with antisemitism.
The examples have also been used by Israel lobby groups to disrupt the activities of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement around the world by claiming that a boycott of Israel is anti-Semitic.