In My Words: Gov. Roy Cooper Should Veto North Carolina’s Misguided SHALOM Act on Anti-Semitism | Today on Elon

By Geoffrey Claussen

Antisemitism is widely understood as a form of racism, resulting from widespread negative generalizations about Jews.

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism defines it as “discrimination, prejudice, hostility, or violence against Jews in their capacity as Jews (or against Jewish institutions in their capacity as Jewish).” That definition is recommended by hundreds of professors of Holocaust studies, Jewish studies, and Middle Eastern studies around the world, including North Carolina scholars like me.

For staunch defenders of the State of Israel, this definition is not enough. Their preferred framework is the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which encourages labelling strong criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

North Carolina’s SHALOM Act, passed by the Senate this week and sent to Gov. Roy Cooper for his signature, adopts the IHRA framework. Cooper should veto this bill.

The SHALOM Act enshrines a controversial definition of anti-Semitism in state law.

The IHRA framework is an effective tool for stifling criticism of Israel, because its list of examples of antisemitism includes items such as “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, for example by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist initiative” and “drawing comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy and that of the Nazis.” These examples are routinely used to label those who accuse Israel of apartheid or genocide as antisemites, and silence them.

Supporters of the bill claim they are standing with North Carolina Jews. But North Carolina Jews, like Jews elsewhere in the country, are deeply divided over how to define anti-Semitism. While Israel-focused groups affiliated with the Jewish Federations of North America have backed the SHALOM Act, more liberal Jewish organizations like Carolina Jews for Justice have strongly opposed it.

The bill is based on a misleading generalization about Jews, assuming that support for Israel is inherent to being Jewish. But harsh criticism of Israel is widespread among Jews.

A 2021 Jewish Electorate Institute poll found that a quarter of American Jews believe that “Israel is an apartheid state,” while only 31% of Jews believe such a statement is antisemitic. The SHALOM Act would have the perverse effect of encouraging state officials to label significant sectors of our Jewish community as antisemitic, and such a label will have limited support from our community.

The SHALOM Act’s chief sponsor, House Speaker Tim Moore, has claimed that it seeks to protect Jewish college students. But, as should be clear to anyone who has observed college campuses this year, many Jewish students are harsh critics of Israel. The 2021 survey found that 38% of Jews under 40 view Israel as an apartheid state, and those views appear to be even more common among students today.

Under Moore’s legislation, many of my Jewish students would easily be labeled anti-Semitic by the state of North Carolina, as they often view their criticism of Israel as expressions of their Jewish identity. It is unacceptable that the state of North Carolina decides that their expressions of Judaism are prohibited.

Surprisingly, many Shalom Law advocates oppose applying these same kinds of rules to the protection of other ethnic groups. Many of them oppose Palestinian self-determination, but they do not believe that this makes them guilty of anti-Palestinian racism, nor do they believe that it is a sign of intolerance to deny self-determination to thousands of other groups that do not have their own states.

Why adopt a different standard for defining anti-Semitism? Better public policy would use the same kinds of standards for defining racism and prejudice against Jews that are used to define racism and prejudice against other groups.

Those of us who teach these issues on college campuses are dedicated to supporting all students, including Jewish, Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian students, by standing up to those who display racism and prejudice toward them. We are also dedicated to defending them when they are accused of anti-Semitism simply because of their political views.

If Cooper wants to support our diverse students and the diversity of Jews in North Carolina, he should veto this bill.

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The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Elon University.