Against IHRA and Zionist Repression in Academia and Beyond
This special episode features Lana Tatour, Barry Trachtenberg, Meira Gold, and Noa Greenberg. They discuss how IHRA functions as a tool of Zionist repression, whether IHRA’s use is acknowledged or it is quietly adopted. They conclude that the fight against IHRA is ultimately a fight against racism and colonialism.Resources:Coalition to End Zionist Repression Lana Tatour, “Censoring Palestine: human rights, academic freedom and the IHRA”Muhannad Ayyash, “The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism is an orientalist text”Harsha Walia, “Colonialism, racism and the IHRA”Speakers bios:Lana Tatour is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social at the University of New South Wales. Her co-edited book, Race and the Question of Palestine, is forthcoming with Stanford University Press in 2025. Barry Trachtenberg holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. A historian of modern Jewish history, the Holocaust, and Jewish nationalism, he is the author of three books, most recently The Holocaust & the Exile of Yiddish (2022) and The United States and the Nazi Holocaust: Race, Refuge, and Remembrance (2018). He has published on issues related to American support for Israel, Zionism, Anti-zionism, and Antisemitism in venues such as Jewish Currents, the Forward, Electronic Intifada, and Mondoweiss. In 2017, he testified to the US Congress on the topic of antisemitism on college and university classrooms. In 2023, he submitted with colleagues expert testimony on a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and in 2024 testified in the trial DCI-Palestine v. Biden seeking an emergency injunction to stop military and diplomatic support for Israeli government’s genocidal assault on Gaza. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Boards of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. For more information see https://wfu.academia.edu/BarryTrachtenberg.Meira Gold is historian of science, archaeology, race, and empire currently based in NYC. She has held teaching and research positions at NYU, York University, the European University Institute, and the University of Cambridge. She is a proud anti-Zionist Jew and an organizing member of NYU Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.Noa Greenberg is a member of CUNY for Palestine as well as Not In Our Name CUNY. They have been organizing around Palestine at CUNY for nearly 3 years. They are currently an undergraduate student at CUNY studying political science in the hopes of pursuing law later on.
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1:07:05
Amira Jarmakani on the move from “Zionism is racism” to “antisemitism is racism”
This episode features Dr. Amira Jarmakani, who explains how the Zionist campaign to enshrine the IHRA definition of antisemitism and use it to count antisemitic incidents is a tactical move to counter the United Nations’ powerful assertion that Zionism is racism. That UN resolution was passed in 1975. Dr. Jarmakani explains how counting incidents works to turn our attention away from racism and state violence. Instead, it substitutes a depoliticized notion of hate, and uses it to demonize those who resist state violence in the U.S., Palestine, and around the world.The transcript of this episode is on our website, along with a video recording of Dr Jarmakani’s talk – which took place at our 2023 conference also called “Battling the IHRA Definition: Theory and Activism.” On the website you’ll also find more resources on the IHRA definition, and on how it’s being resisted. The website is criticalzionismstudies.org.Amira Jarmakani is a professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and affiliated faculty with the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies and LGBTQ Plus Studies at San Diego State University. Dr. Jarmakani is a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective and the advisory board of the Institute.
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13:42
Jennifer Kelly on Christian Zionism, Tourism, and the IHRA Definition
In today’s episode, we’ll hear from Jennifer Kelly, speaking at our October 2023 conference titled “Battling the IHRA Definition: Theory and Activism.” Jennifer Kelly is a founding collective member of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and a professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Her talk is titled Christian Zionism, Tourism, and the IHRA Definition.On our website, you can also find more resources about the IHRA definition and how to resist it.You can view the video of Dr Kelly's talk here.
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19:02
The new "terror" bill
In this special episode, we share a talk on a new (really!) right-wing attack on Palestine-related organizations: a U.S. federal "anti-terror" bill that would strip progressive organizations of their ability to function, and wouldn't require scrutiny or due process. Legal scholar Darryl Li and policy expert Lara Friedman discuss the new legislation and its relationship to the avalanche of new proposed "anti-antisemitism" bills currently before Congress.This conversation rests on Darryl Li’s recent report “Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers of U.S. Antiterrorism Law”, published by Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Lara Friedman’s most recent legislative round-up which she publishes at the Foundation for Middle East Peace website.
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50:47
Mapping the Fight: IHRA and anti-Palestinian attacks on knowledge
This special episode maps the wide-ranging counterinsurgency against the anticolonial Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S., and opens a conversation on strategy for resistance. Lara Friedman, Amira Jarmakani, and Emmaia Gelman talk through campus safety narratives, Zionist “antisemitism watchdogs”, and a mushrooming landscape of federal and state legislation. This panel was recorded as part of the American Studies Association May 2024 Mini-Conference.This week’s episode is accompanied by a trove of materials. In the show notes, listeners can access the slides for Dr. Jarmakani’s talk, Lara Friedman’s essential work on tracking legislation, and Emmaia Gelman’s article on “Astroturf Antisemitism Watchdogs” in Jadaliyya along with the zine that goes with it. We’re also linking to work from the Palestinian Feminist Collective on sophicide, Devin Atallah’s article “Beyond Grief,” the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition website, and a report on the politics of the IHRA definition from scholar Jamie Stern-Weiner.Lara Friedman, Foundation for Middle East PeaceAmira Jarmakani, San Diego State UniversityEmmaia Gelman, Sarah Lawrence College*** This episode was previously released on the feed of the Institute’s other podcast, Unpacking Zionism
Battling the IHRA Definition is a new podcast by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. “The IHRA definition of antisemitism” refers to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The IHRA definition is used to assert that criticism of Israel and Zionism is antisemitic and discriminatory. In Congress, proposed bills would make the IHRA definition into law, and connect its charges of “antisemitism” to “supporting terror.” They threaten to criminalize protest, defund schools, ban teaching about racism, target BIPOC & Jewish organizations, fire supportive professors, evict students, deport immigrants, undo DEI policies, and excuse genocide. Wherever it is already policy, the IHRA definition is used to smear, defund, and and in some cases criminalize those who oppose racism, colonialism, and genocide, and those who speak up for Palestinian liberation.In October 2023, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism held a 2-day convening called “Battling the IHRA Definition: Theory and Activism.” This new podcast will feature recordings of the conference presentation as well as new research and analysis. Check out our website, https://criticalzionismstudies.org for more resources on the IHRA definition, including a “NO IHRA” toolkit for students, faculty, and staff who are working to stop right wing attacks on universities, knowledge, and communities, attacks that use anti-Palestinian racism as their starting point.This podcast is another resource to support those who are battling the IHRA definition.
Ireland