House Passes Bill That Defines Criticism of Israel as “Antisemitism” - eviltoast

Jewish-led groups slammed the legislation as a tool for silencing the movement for Palestinian rights.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/kVkfI

  • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I’m with you that the primary purpose of this bill is to chill speech. It could have been useful in less charged times but there is zero possibility of passing anything like this without the current zeitgeist interfering in either direction. Regardless, I just cannot agree with your interpretation here. In the current landscape, the hypothetical arguments you presented don’t follow logic that a court would follow.

    Accusing Israel of apartheid is not the same as the wording of the text, which is to assert that the existence of Israel itself is racist. Saying Israel did something that Nazi Germany did is not drawing a comparison in the same way that me saying you breathe air is not comparing you to Hitler. I would have to assert “you are like Hitler because you breathe air like he did” to draw a comparison.

    I also cannot get down with “they said ‘but not limited to’ so it could literally be anything”. That’s standard boilerplate stuff that is only saying the definition cannot explicitly list every example of antisemitic behavior. It’s not meant to stretch the definition out.

    Frankly, I think this bill is dumb. It’s obviously meant as a deterrent for pro-Palestinian voices. The danger in this bill will be in the implementation and enforcement. However, I don’t see anything inherently wrong with the definition of antisemitism used by the bill.

    • BrikoX@lemmy.zipOPM
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      7 months ago

      That’s the beauty of a discussion, we don’t have to agree on everything. Thank you for a civil discussion, and time will tell which one of was correct.