Student union at London university rejects proposal to rescind IHRA definition

London (QNN)- University College London (UCL) students’ union has rejected a motion to rescind the school’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism last week, affirming their support of the IHRA definition.

The student union vote was on a proposal calling for adherence to a report by the Academic Board Working Group on Racism and Prejudice, which says that the IHRA definition was “not fit for purpose within a university setting and has no legal basis for enforcement.”

The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism was officially adopted by UCL in November 2019.

The vote was originally scheduled for Jan. 26, the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom.

However, the vote was moved to Feb. 3 after UCL Jewish Society president Samuel Goldstone found out about the session and shared his dismay over its “shameful and disgusting” timing.

“The exclusion of Jewish students from the discussion over IHRA first by the academic working group and now the student union is a scandal that would likely not be perpetrated against any other minority at UCL,” said Georgia Leatherdale-Gilholy, U.K. associate for CAMERA on Campus.

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.