In his open letter to the acting president of Columbia University (I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump, 1 August), Rashid Khalidi announces that he will not teach his scheduled course in the fall term, “specifically […] in light of Columbia’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism”. The IHRA definition, Khalidi explains, “deliberately, mendaciously and disingenuously conflates Jewishness with Israel, so that any criticism of Israel, or indeed description of Israeli policies, becomes a criticism of Jews”.
The IHRA is an intergovernmental body with a mandate to address contemporary challenges related to the Holocaust and genocide of the Roma. It has 35 member countries, including every member of the EU except Malta. So this is a serious allegation. But what does the IHRA definition actually say?
