International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

IHRA   (IGO)
Formation	1998
Founder	Göran Persson
Headquarters	Berlin,  Germany
Type	Intergovernmental organisation
Interests	•  “The Holocaust” •  Anti-semitism
"The most blatant attempt to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism"

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), formerly the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF) until January 2013, is an intergovernmental organisation established in 1998.

Dr Ranjeet Brar has described the IHRA as follows:

"It parallels NATO in its composition and framework. It's like an ambassadorial, institutional body.

"Like we send ambassadors to countries – United States, Belgium, Canada – Britain sends an ambassador to the IHRA."

Official narrative

The IHRA's mandate is founded upon the principles laid out by the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. The stated aims of IHRA are to mobilise and coordinate political and social leaders' support for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research at national and international levels. In 2007, IHRA expanded its thematic mandate to include the genocide of the Roma and other topics, such as genocide prevention and combating antisemitism.

IHRA definition of antisemitism

The IHRA definition of antisemitism is the "non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism" that was adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016. It is also known as the IHRA working definition of antisemitism (IHRA-WDA). It was first published in 2005 by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), a European Union agency. Accompanying the working definition are 11 illustrative examples, seven of which relate to criticism of Israel, that the IHRA describes as guiding its work on antisemitism.

The working definition was developed during 2003–2004, and was published without formal review by the EUMC on 28 January 2005. The EUMC's successor agency, the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), removed the working definition from its website in "a clear-out of non-official documents" in November 2013. On 26 May 2016, the working definition was adopted by the IHRA Plenary (consisting of representatives from 31 countries) in Bucharest, Romania, and was republished on the IHRA website. It was subsequently adopted by the European Parliament and other national and international bodies, although not all have explicitly included the illustrative examples. Pro-Israel organisations have been advocates for the worldwide legal adoption of the IHRA working definition.

It has been described as an example of a persuasive definition, and as a "prime example of language being both the site of, and stake in, struggles for power". The examples relating to Israel have been criticised by academics, including legal scholars, for being open to weaponisation of antisemitism used to stifle free speech relating to criticism of Israeli actions and policies. High-profile controversies took place in the United Kingdom in 2011 within the University and College Union, and within the Labour Party in 2018. Critics say weaknesses in the working definition may lend themselves to abuse, that it may obstruct campaigning for the rights of Palestinians (as in the Palestine exception), and that it is too vague. Kenneth S. Stern, who contributed to the original draft, has opposed the weaponisation of the definition on college campuses in ways that might undermine free speech. The controversy over the definition led to the creation of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexus Document, both of which expressly draw distinctions between antisemitism and criticism of Israel.

Text

The working definition reads:

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.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Anatomy of a Scandal: Israel Crucifies Corbyn	Article	14 August 2014	Michael W. Howard	"Tom Watson has it backward: the 'eternal shame and embarrassment' come when Labour, swallowing whatever pride it has left, meekly submits to being harassed and blackmailed by a foreign power and its vulgar propagandists. Jeremy Corbyn, it seems, is gearing up to do just that. Chalk one up for Goebbels."
Document:Anti-semitism is cover for a much deeper divide in Britain's Labour party	Article	20 February 2019	Jonathan Cook	Paradoxically, the Labour breakaway group may have inadvertently exposed the weakness of its hand. The eight MPs have indicated that they will not run in by-elections, and for good reason: it is highly unlikely they would stand a chance of winning in any of their current constituencies outside the Labour Party.
Document:BBC's biased and inaccurate reporting of anti-semitism allegations towards Jeremy Corbyn	Letter	7 August 2018	Pamela Blakelock	"We regret that the BBC has failed to comply with its own codes with regard to impartiality and accuracy. Given the gravity of allegations of anti-semitism, the role performed by the BBC is all the more critical if it is to live up to Reithian principles of informing the public."
Document:Israel Stooges Freak Out over Baroness Jenny's Remarks - Again	Article	3 November 2018	Stuart Littlewood	Baroness Jenny Tonge: "The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was an absolutely appalling and a criminal act, but does it ever occur to Bibi and the present Israeli government that its actions against Palestinians may be reigniting anti-Semitism? I suppose someone will say that it is anti-Semitic to say so?"
Document:UK Labour Party is right to drop racist IHRA guidelines of anti-Semitism	Article	6 August 2018		The IHRA definition of antisemitism guidelines the Labour Party are correctly omitting, are designed by Israeli propagandists to aid their many mass lobby attempts to stop international solidarity with the Palestinians and to deny Palestinians the right to express the nature of Israel’s 70 years of violence and racism towards them.

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