US Backs IHRA Antisemitism Definition After UN Criticism

The Biden Administration on Friday repeated its support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism after it...

UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance E. Tendayi Achiume speaking at the United Nations on October 31, 2022 (Screenshot)

The Biden Administration on Friday repeated its support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism after it was criticized by a top UN official.

Speaking at the UN’s Third Committee on October 31, the last day of her term, E. Tendayi Achiume, the UN’s outgoing Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, said that there was a “worrying trend” of the “instrumentalization” of antisemitism. “I highlight the controversial status, divisive effects, and negative human rights impacts of the IHRA working definition on antisemitism,” she said, outlining the findings of her report to the committee on combating neo-Nazism.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Achiume had “misrepresented” the IHRA definition. “In an era of rapidly rising global antisemitism, now is not the time to discard one of the most fundamental and critical tools in the arsenal to combat it,” Price added.

Achiume, who was born in Zambia, was appointed to the special rapporteur role by the UN Human Rights Council in 2017 and is a law professor at UCLA.

Adopted in 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance defined antisemitism as “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.” IHRA also adopted illustrative examples of antisemitism to go along with the definition, including that targeting the state of Israel as a Jewish collectivity was antisemitic, but that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country was not.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, called the report and the remarks by Achiume “a disgrace.” “These ill-founded recommendations made by the rapporteur are not in line with and are not part of her mandate,” he said, adding that the recommendation to suspend use of the definition would only give aid to antisemites.

Jewish groups also condemned the UN report and supported the Biden administration’s commitment to the IHRA definition. The World Jewish Congress called Achiume’s report “petty and ill-informed politics.” 

“This is a nonsensical sneak attack against Jews and Israel by yet another United Nations so-called ‘human rights committee,’” said the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper.