UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance issues statement condemning tampering with the International Definition of Antisemitism

The UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has issued a statement condemning efforts to tamper with the International Definition of Antisemitism by removing or amending the examples of antisemitism which form part of the definition.

The statement does not mention the Labour Party, but the timing and content of the statement appears to be a response to the Labour Party’s refusal to adopt a number of the examples in the definition.

In a pointed remark, the statement says: “Any ‘modified’ version of the IHRA definition that does not include all of its 11 examples is no longer the IHRA definition. Adding or removing language undermines the months of international diplomacy and academic rigour that enabled this definition to exist. If one organisation or institution can amend the wording to suit its own needs, then logically anyone else could do the same. We would once again revert to a world where antisemitism goes unaddressed simply because different entities cannot agree on what it is.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes IHRA’s intervention to defend the integrity of the definition. It should shame the Labour Party that its efforts to tamper with and undermine the definition precipitated such a move.