Danya Zituni's Op-Ed on IHRA & Expanding Police Surveillance
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Communications Manager Danya Zituni published an op-ed in Truthout, on an alarming new trend of multiple U.S. cities and counties voting to adopt the distorted definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). In the Op-Ed, Danya argues that the IHRA definition is also dangerously being used to expand the scope and power of police surveillance, and provides quotes from organizers challenging IHRA on the ground from Stop LAPD Spying and Palestinian Youth Movement:
“In multiple cities across the U.S., the right-wing push for new laws to silence criticism of Israel for its human rights violations has reached a crescendo. As part of a growing international effort, Israel lobby groups have convinced local jurisdictions in several U.S. states to adopt the controversial and overbroad definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which classifies virtually all expression in support of Palestinian rights as anti-Jewish.
In California, the West Hollywood, Manhattan Beach and Los Angeles city councils each adopted the IHRA definition in the last two months. In Maryland, the Montgomery County Council did the same on November 2.
When adopted by municipalities, the IHRA definition expands the scope of policing by giving law enforcement yet another tool and pretense to surveil communities who speak out for Palestinian rights.
For instance, when West Hollywood officials adopted the IHRA definition, they claimed that it “serves as an important tool for law enforcement [to] identify, measure, monitor, and ultimately combat antisemitism.” Much like the post-9/11 “counter-terror” surveillance programs that devastated Muslim, Arab, Black and South Asian immigrant communities in the name of national security — will the IHRA definition measure public safety in terms of how many people that law enforcement can censor, surveil and wrongfully criminalize?
For decades, the state of Israel has faced increasing international condemnation for its racial discrimination and violent displacement of Palestinians. International watchdogs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both released reports accusing Israel of committing apartheid. Now, the IHRA definition is attempting to smear those criticisms themselves as racist. Black and Brown activists challenging racist surveillance by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) recognize the irony of this development.”