Media Roundup: Palestine Legal on Dept of Ed decision to not implement distorted IHRA definition
/Our advocacy manager, Lina Assi, spoke to the Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss and Jewish Currents about an important victory: the Department of Education’s exclusion of the distorted IHRA definition in its guidance on addressing antisemitism and other discrimination in US schools – despite heavy pressure from Israel lobby groups that use IHRA as a censorship tool.
Palestine Legal, in coalition with 16 other civil rights organizations, sent a letter to the Department of Education in August warning that implementation of IHRA would infringe on free speech and further harm Palestinian and Muslim academics and students.
Below are the three articles quoting Lina.
U.S. Dept of Education rebuffs Israel lobby demands
“This is the Office for Civil Rights understanding that the fight against anti-Semitism is linked with other forms of racism and xenophobia, and seeing them as part and parcel of the same struggle,” Lina Assi, advocacy manager at the civil rights group Palestine Legal, told The Electronic Intifada.
She added that it “reaffirms First Amendment rights and gives students on campus the space to continue to advocate for Palestinian rights without fear of reprisal or attacks from university administrators or external pro-Israel advocacy groups.”
“The Israel lobby has its hands in a lot of places to try and expand the authority of the IHRA, and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is only one arena where they’re trying to push it through – and luckily, they’ve failed in that regard,” Assi said.
But, she explained, Israel lobby groups are trying to codify the IHRA in state legislatures.
Arizona adopted the definition in April 2022, and Virginia has recently introduced both state house and senate bills to adopt the IHRA.
“There’s a whole terrain we have to mobilize against, but we’re happy to see how OCR’s decision played out,” Assi said.
Despite pressure from pro-Israel groups, Education Department doesn’t adopt controversial antisemitism definition
“We are reassured to see OCR do the right thing: link the fight against antisemitism to other anti-racist struggles,” Palestine Legal Advocacy Director Lina Assi told Mondoweiss.
“This gives space for Palestinian educators and students to continue to advocate for Palestinian freedom on their campuses without the fear of being investigated for false accusations. Alongside our movement partners, Palestine Legal will continue to highlight how pro-Israel lobby groups wield IHRA to silence and suppress Palestinians, and urge the Office for Civil Rights not to adopt it in a formal rule.”
Over the past year, OCR has conducted “listening sessions” with stakeholders on the antisemitism rule, focused in part on the IHRA definition. During these sessions, the office has heard from a wide array of advocacy organizations, including mainstream Jewish groups that support the adoption of IHRA and progressive and civil rights groups that oppose it, according to Lina Assi, advocacy manager for Palestine Legal. In August, Palestine Legal and 16 other organizations—including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights—sent a letter to OCR asking the office not to use IHRA because of its potential to harm Palestinians and their allies by categorizing their advocacy as antisemitism. “Our biggest fear is that IHRA could be wielded against Palestinian students and educators,” said Assi.