Politics

Anti-Israel Nonprofit Continues To Sabotage Efforts To Pass Antisemitism Definition Into Georgia Law

No featured image available

• The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been actively working for the past several years to prevent the Georgia legislature from passing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
• The definition also includes certain criticisms of Israel as antisemitic, which CAIR argues would ” attempt to stifle our First Amendment rights,” according to a petition aimed at stopping the most recent bill HB 30 from passing.
• “Last November, shortly before a terrorist targeted a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, one of CAIR’s executive directors gave a speech calling synagogues and other Jewish organizations ‘enemies’ who are part of a massive conspiracy behind Islamophobia,” Mark Goldfeder, a professor at the Emory University School of Law, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a nonprofit known for its anti-Israel rhetoric and ties to terrorist groups, has been actively working to prevent the Georgia legislature from passing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

CAIR campaigned against HB 1247 in 2022 and now again this year after the bill was reintroduced as HB 30, accordingto its website. The bills would make the IHRA working definition of antisemitism the legal standard in Georgia but CAIR argues that the real force behind antisemitism is “white supremacy” and not anti-Zionist and anti-Israel rhetoric, which the organization has been accused of on multiple occasions, according to a petition.

HB 30 was introduced by Republican state Rep. John Carson, Rep. Chuck Efstration and Rep. Esther Panitch to “require state agencies and departments to consider such a definition when determining whether an alleged act was motivated by discriminatory antisemitic intent,” according to the bill’s text. The IHRA definition defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The definition also includes certain criticisms of Israel as antisemitic, which CAIR argues would ” attempt to stifle our First Amendment rights,” according to the petition. The IHRA does clarify, however, that criticism of Israel equal to criticism of other countries would not be included in the definition, only criticism that would accuse “Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust,” for example, would be considered antisemitic.

Despite this, CAIR claims in the petition that the adoption of the bill would silence any protest of Israel.

“Labeling support for Palestinian rights as anti-Jewish is one of the primary tactics used to attempt to silence political debate,” CAIR wrote. “Calling for freedom, justice, and equality for Palestinians is rooted in principles of human rights and dignity. This is a blatant attempt to stifle our First Amendment rights as United States citizens while doing nothing to meaningfully address the root cause of most antisemitism: white supremacism.”

Mark Goldfeder, a professor at the Emory University School of Law, refuted CAIR’s argument in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“It does not criminalize hate speech or criticism about Jews or about Israel, and this is a fact, and not a matter of opinion; the text of the bill is available for any and all to read,” Goldfeder said. “It only addresses discriminatory acts and hate crimes committed against Jewish people. All it does is ensure that when analyzing the intent behind illegal discriminatory actions, when there is an allegation that the person chose their target because of anti-Jewish animus, authorities consider the world’s most well-accepted definition of antisemitism as rebuttable contextual evidence of the motive behind their actions.”

CAIR also has a long history of criticizing Israel and many the group’s comments have been considered antisemitic, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Additionally, high-level CAIR officials have been linked to the terrorist organization Hamas which regularly commits terror attacks against Israel.

In 2013, the U.S. Justice Department found that CAIR had ties to the Holy Land 5, a Palestinian charity that was found to be funding terrorism against Israel. CAIR was established in 1994 by members of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) which has been characterized by the U.S. as Hamas’ propaganda arm, and CAIR’s current Executive Director Nihad Awad was the former director of IAP, according to Tablet.

Goldfeder said that it is important to take CAIR’s history into account when appraising the group’s efforts to undermine the IHRA definition.

Cair is not a neutral party in this area,” Goldfeder said. “Last November, shortly before a terrorist targeted a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, one of CAIR’s executive directors gave a speech calling synagogues and other Jewish organizations ‘enemies’ who are part of a massive conspiracy behind Islamophobia. Her list included the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federation chapters, Hillel and “Zionist synagogues”- i.e. the very people who testified before the committees here in Georgia.”

The bill was initially thought to be dead after it was significantly amended in a committee but was added to another bill HB 144 last week and is expected to be voted on sometime Wednesday in the state senate, according to AP.

CAIR did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.