The anti-Semitism Problem of pro-Palestinian Progressives

[Little Tich]

7. I thought that definition had been withdrawn because it was faulty.

EU drops its ‘working definition’ of anti-Semitism
Source: Times of Israel, December 5, 2013

Fundamental Rights Agency had previously defined the term to include the vilification of Israel or Israelis

The European Union’s agency for combating racism dropped its definition for anti-Semitism and now is unable to define the term, an agency spokeswoman said.

Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-drops-its-working-definition-of-anti-semitism/

There's no way to classify a statement negative of Israel, Israelis or Jewish symbols as being possibly more anti-Semitic than a positive one.

Personally, I use two definitions of anti-Semitism that when combined, include everything I would consider anti-Semitic, and everything that's not is excluded. Never failed me so far:

Anti-Semitism is a form of racism directed against Jews

Anti-Semitism is antipathy towards Jews

If we compare my definition, with the dropped EUMC "working definition", some differences will show: First of all, I consider anti-Semitism to be a form of racism and nothing else - if it's not racism, it can't be anti-Semitism. The EUMC "working definition" includes vilification of Israel and Israelis, which isn't racism. The only real effect of using the EUMC "working definition" is that in addition to all the cases of anti-Semitism that are included in my definition, there will be other cases, all of them connected to Israel and Israelis. None of these new cases of anti-Semitism connected to Israel and Israelis would be anti-Semitic by my definition.

For me, the EUMC "working definition" is just a cheap Zionist trick to smear criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism. It's also dangerous, because if the difference between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel becomes blurred, it waters down the seriousness of anti-Semitism, and gives legitimacy to real anti-Semitism (as in directed against Jews).