SUSAN KERINNORTH
Most people in Montgomery County, MD would support a resolution that condemns anti-Semitic hate, but the council passed a resolution without a public hearing using the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which could quash criticisms of Israeli government policies and actions. (PHOTO COURTESY MD2PALESTINE).
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2023, pp. 22-23
Special Report
By Susan Kerin
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND isn’t the first and won’t be the last community to pass a resolution that redefines anti-Semitism to include criticisms of Israel. However, the unanimous passage by the County Council on Nov. 1 is destined to serve as a legacy turning point in the growing national policy trend to suppress Palestinian human rights activism.
At the core of the debate is the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. It gives eleven examples of what the IHRA considers to be anti-Semitic discourse, some of which are simply criticisms of Israel/Zionism.
IHRA’S ROOTS IN RIGHT-WING IDEOLOGY
The model legislation is rooted in President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13899 of 2019, “Combatting Anti-Semitism,” and has been criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Association of University Professors and the National Coalition Against Censorship. That same year, Florida State Representative Randy Fine began contacting conservative politicians who had just returned from an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference to launch an expansion of the IHRA definition across right-wing municipalities nationally. In an email to attendees a week after the meeting Rep. Fine wrote, “Students for Justice in Palestine is now treated the same way as the Ku Klux Klan—as they should be.” Fine’s racial underpinnings gained national attention when he used the hashtags #bombsaway and #nomercy during Israel’s 2021 assault on Gaza, including in response to a picture of a dead Gazan child.
While Trump’s Executive Order authorizes the Department of Education to adjudicate and withhold Title VI funds from entities deemed to be anti-Semitic using this new definition, the department needs local data to substantiate the allegations. So local resolutions are intended to change how local police departments track bias incidents. Local protests of Israel’s bombing of Gaza or attempts to ethnically cleanse Sheikh Jarrah would be counted as anti-Semitic incidents.
PASSED WITHOUT PUBLIC DEBATE
Prior to its passage in Montgomery County, the resolution had already begun creeping into less conservative municipalities like Arlington, VA and Washington, DC. But those resolutions passed unnoticed, for the most part, by activists and elected officials who had no idea that it went beyond affirming that anti-Semitism was a form of racism and would not be tolerated.
According to Rosie Saah, from the county’s chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, “The situation in Montgomery County was very different. Our elected officials heard from hundreds of residents and nearly 40 organizations concerned about the implications. But they chose to pass it anyway. And refused to allow a public hearing.”
The council, which unanimously supported the resolution, refused to allow a public hearing. During a packed meeting, most of the council members peppered their comments with claims that the county is a beacon against hate, bigotry and discrimination. But Council President Gabe Albornoz acknowledged that there “is a lot of emotion in the room” and Councilmember Will Jawando expressed “dismay over the process.” When Councilmember Evan Glass, who co-sponsored the resolution, said that he appreciated the conversation, several activists interrupted him: “this is not a conversation,” they told him, and “this is not how democracy works.”
Yasmine, a college student who is a member of the Palestinian diaspora, attended the meeting but wasn’t one of the disrupters. She noted that “audience members’ comments were acts of frustration not only because the council rejected our request for a public hearing but also because we learned the sponsors held closed-door negotiations excluding stakeholders like us.” In fact, three Palestinian-led organizations lodged a formal complaint to the councilmembers about the closed door deliberations earlier that week. And within hours of receiving that notice, lead sponsor Councilmember Andrew Friedson sent an internal email to his colleagues saying that the resolution “was discussed and agreed upon by…leading advocates and organizational leaders.” According to Yasmine, “the lack of transparency has really undermined our trust in our elected officials. Here we were advocating for months against the resolution because it silences Palestinian voices. And it turns out that councilmembers were already silencing us with their secret deliberations.”
Lobbyists supporting the resolution included the local Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). While they publicly claimed the resolution was non-binding and only intended for educational purposes, there was already an instance during Israel’s 2021 assaults where the county’s school system sent out a notice to parents intended to chill student and teacher discussions. The note warned that the “ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has resulted in a significant uptick of threats of violence, expressions of bigotry and anti-Semitism locally and across the nation. These reports have raised anxiety and concerns about safety among students and staff, particularly Jewish students and their families. Students must feel safe in school to learn.” The note concluded with recommended resources and teaching materials for educators and parents to use to stop the rise of anti-Semitism. Internal documents revealed that the JCRC advocated for the notice and had specifically referenced criticisms of Israel in its allegations of anti-Semitism.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Within a week of the resolution’s passage by the County Council, Friedson sent an email to all constituents who criticized the resolution indicating that he already had begun implementing the “educational” component of the resolution. Saah notes: “We know that our work isn’t over. We intend to continue to push back on the implementation of the resolution into our schools and community. But we also don’t want this issue to distract us from our main advocacy, which is to end the Israeli occupation and support Palestinian human rights.”
Susan Kerin is chair of Peace Action Montgomery, a chapter of Peace Action, the nation’s largest peace organization.
