Antisemitism in Local Authorities

Wealden District Council

International Definition of Antisemitism

The Council has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that it has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The Council said that the Definition was adopted on an unknown date in 2020.

The Council has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that it does apply the Definition in disciplinary matters.

The Council has told Campaign Against Antisemitism: “We can confirm that the IHRA definition has not been formally adopted by the Council, the decision to include part of the definition within our Safeguarding Policy was taken by the Council’s Corporate Management Team therefore there are no specific minutes of a Council meeting that apply.”

There is no reference to the examples in its Safeguarding Policy or Freedom of Information response and therefore we cannot assess with certainty whether the Definition has been adopted in full.

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 14th August 2021, to which the Council responded on 9th September 2021.

Incidents

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.