Letter

In response to How the Royal Commission should define antisemitism

Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism

Gareth Evans offers a valuable, detailed analysis of the inadequacies of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. But he does not mention an important alternative to the complicated process of patching up the IHRA definition and its so-called ’examples’. It was developed by a group of 270 scholars in the fields of Holocaust history, Jewish studies, and Middle East studies.

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism is concise, less open to ambiguity and misuse, and likely to be more effective in combatting genuine antisemitism. It is simply: “Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish)”.

— Mark Diesendorf from Sydney NSW