The Council does not appear to have adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.
As part of its response, the Council provided its Equality Policy, which shows that the Definition was adopted with no mention of the illustrative examples.
The Council has told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “As this change was only to the glossary it did not need formal committee approval. The changes were reviewed by Unison and senior management before being added to the website…the changes were made in November 2020, however as it was not necessary to be approved at a formal meeting, we do not hold records of a specific date…The IHRA definition has been adopted in its entirety but not the examples.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism considers the examples to be integral to the Definition, without which an adoption is not complete. In a statement on 7th August 2018, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance reiterated the integrality of the examples to the Definition.
This information was obtained after Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on 10th August 2021, to which the Council responded on 31st August 2021.
No incidents relating to the Council’s officials or councillors have been reported to us, however we recognise that antisemitism is chronically underreported and it is possible that there are incidents that have not been reported. To report an incident, please contact us.