Kentucky to officially adopt IHRA definition of anti-Semitism
Kentucky has officially adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, making it the first US state to do so.
Lawmakers in Kentucky voted to adopt the definition developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, known as IHRA, on Wednesday as part of a broad resolution aimed, falsely, at condemning anti-Semitism.
“The desecration of Jewish cemeteries and congregations and community centers, it’s increasing,” Karen Berg, a Louisville Democrat, told Jewish Telegraphic Agency(JTA).
He added, “And everybody knows it’s increasing. It’s part of the whole hate that we got to put away.”
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.
