The United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would expand the federal definition of anti-Semitism, despite opposition from civil liberties groups.
The bill passed the House on Wednesday by a margin of 320 to 91, and it is largely seen as a reaction to the ongoing antiwar protests unfolding on US university campuses. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
If the bill were to become law, it would codify a definition of anti-Semitism created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities”.
According to the IHRA, that definition also encompasses the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity”.
The group also includes certain examples in its definition to illustrate anti-Semitism. Saying, for instance, that “the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” would be deemed anti-Semitic under its terms. The definition also bars any comparison between “contemporary Israeli policy” and “that of the Nazis”.
Rights groups, however, have raised concerns the definition nevertheless conflates criticism of the state of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism.
In a letter sent to lawmakers on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urged House members to vote against the legislation, saying federal law already prohibits anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.
“Instead, it would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism.”
The comment said “I condemn Hamas” aka the group fighting back against an occupying force and an ongoing genocide. Also said some shitty things about Gaddafi.
They would be condemning the Viet Cong for using the exact same strategies Hamas does (taking hostages, using tunnels and guerilla warfare, etc) and having the same goal of driving out an occupying force to reunite their country, yet they had the audacity to pretend like they’re antizionist.
Campus protests and the pigs dispersing them are also paralleling the Vietnam war.
So? Are those the magical words that justify removing any comment? Hamas isn’t Palestine or Palestinians and condemning a group that killed hundreds shouldn’t be a controversial statement, much less bigotry. And the irony of this happening in the thread about Isreal trying to pass a similar law for themselves…
I can understand you and other commenters expressing your opinions but the fact that not even the mods are keeping up the pretense of impartiality is insane
There is no impartiality for genocide.
The Viet Cong killed hundreds in the same way, and so have all successful revolutionary groups in the past. Decolonization is violent, if you don’t like it don’t colonize in the first place.
Edit: And Hamas, even with their far less precise gear and without military superiority, has done a far better job avoiding killing civilians than the occupation has. The final death toll from the Oct 7 retaliation is now thought to be 695 Israeli “civilians” (mostly unarmed IDF conscripts), 373 armed IDF members, 71 foreigners and 36 children. While Israel has killed over 30 thousand Palestinians, 2/3 of whom are women and children.
Fuck off with hiding behind “but genocide!” whenever someone disagrees with you and double fuck you for implying that I or those other people support genocide. No matter how hard tankie politics dictates imperialsits (‘them’) and rest of the world (‘us’) are polar opposites, there are people that share some of your values and don’t share others. This includes people who see both hamas and isreali gvt as evil. If your ideology has answers ready for everything and doesn’t need you to impartially think to come to conclusions that’s a bullshit ideology.
Edit: Reminds me of religious nuts thinking atheists are evil because if they don’t follow every rule in the book they must be breaking all of the rules and you certainly can’t have your own moral compass.
Are you seriously arguing that killing less civilians than the isreali military somehow makes hamas good? If they hadn’t attacked much of the violence since then wouldn’t have happened and those 30 thousand Palestinians would at least be alive, even if not free. How hard is it to understand that multiple things can be correct?
I can understand why Hamas would choose to do what they did when they did it. Cornered animal lashes out. But it’s incomprehensible to me how anyone looking from the outside thinks attacking Isreal with anything less than a takeover force was a good idea, especially considering that in hindsight it was a terrible one.
“Anything I don’t like is a tankie”, Lemmy politics equivalent to the right wing’s use of woke.
Followed by the 30,000x version of “they wouldn’t have died if they just did what the police told them!”
You’re saying the people advocating to remove comments that condemn Hamas or Gaddafi, accuse people of obeying the ‘empire’ and bring up genocide to claim moral high ground aren’t tankies?
Just because one side of a conflict is evil doesn’t automatically make the other side good. Evil can fight evil, and when it does we should condemn both sides. Hamas have literally said that their goal is to genocide the Israelis, if you think that’s ok then that’s terribly hypocritical of you. The only reason Israel is succeeding in that goal and Hamas are not is because USA is tipping the scales with their arms shipments etc
…that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
Don’t blindly believe what western outlets say.
The Hamas Can’t you see both sides are using identical arguments? Israel has also repeatedly said that their intention is to destroy Hamas, not the Palestinian people, but their actions show that that is utter bullshit of course (they even used suitcases full of cash to keep Hamas in power).
Likewise Hamas claim to only be against the Zionists in order to gain public support but their charter literally says “from the Jordan river to the sea, Palestine will be free of Jews”, and there are numerous reports of them raping and murdering innocent Israelis.
Long story short, the current government of Israel and Hamas are both terrible, and supporting either of them is supporting a group whose goal is genocide. The US government is obviously extra complicit in genocide due to continuing to sell Israel weapons, but if you didn’t already know that US foreign policy is pure evil then you haven’t been paying attention
I condemn Hamas
Thanks for being the occupation’s little lapdog
I condemn the IDF
Both-siding with an occupation and their victims just means passively supporting their genocide. My statement remains unchanged.
Fuck the IDF. Fuck Hamas. Save the Palestinian people. It’s not that hard.
Yeah that’ll happen by magic and not violent resistance, just like with Vietnam
It won’t happen by magic with blind violence.
Yup, it has to be properly organized and planned obviously
Liberals try to have critical thinking challenge (impossible)
Terminally online people try to condemn killing innocent civilians including children (impossible)
Talking about yourself? You know, both-siding with the genocide and all
No, shitting on the resistance does not count as “condemning” the occupation.
Consider organizing.