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The American Civil Liberties Union urged U.S. education secretary Miguel Cardona to reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, arguing in a letter Tuesday that it would chill free speech about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campuses.
“This definition of antisemitism conflates protected political speech—namely, criticisms of Israel and its policies—with unprotected discrimination, and enshrining it into regulation will chill the exercise of First Amendment rights and risk undermining the agency’s legitimate and important efforts to combat discrimination,” the letter said.
The free speech nonprofit noted that even without adopting the IHRA’s definition, the department has fielded numerous complaints and lawsuits from advocacy groups charging colleges with violating Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 for failing to punish or condemn pro-Palestinian student and faculty activists. Adopting the definition will only exacerbate the issue, it said.
