South Australia’s Legislative Council has adopted a contentious international definition of antisemitism, despite pushback from critics who say it’s intended to stifle criticism of Israel.
The Upper House voted 15 to 4 on Thursday in favour of a motion from One Nation MLC Sarah Game asking that the Legislative Council “endorses and adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism together with its contemporary examples”.
The IHRA is an intergovernmental organisation with 35 member countries, including Australia. One of its core projects has been to draft a working definition of antisemitism to help “governments, organisations and individuals in their efforts to identify antisemitism”.
Labor and the Liberal Opposition voted to adopt the non-legally binding definition. The Greens and SA-Best voted against.
The IHRA definition states that “antisemitism is 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,” it states.
But the motion also saw the Upper House formally recognise a series of contentious “contemporary examples” the IHRA says can be understood as antisemitism.
Seven of the 11 examples relate to the State of Israel, a country which has faced significant international criticism for its treatment of Palestinians through its blockade of the Gaza strip and expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Read the article by Thomas Kelsall in InDaily.