October Update
We have learned that the resolution will be voted on at the Council meeting on October 25th. We have three updates to the original action alert.
There will be implications
The intent of the resolution is to allow for “tracking” of incidents. Currently, bias incidents are identified and reported by the Montgomery County Police (MCPD) who then annually submit it to the Council and State of Maryland. The National Executive Order on IHRA enables the U.S. Department of Education to adjudicate and withhold Title VI funds to universities based on discrimination concerns. In other words, this new data could be used to potentially target Montgomery College if there are professors or students who take a stand against Israeli human rights offenses or even just teach about it.
Our School System Already Tried to Use It
More details can be found here.
County Council may alter protocol to get this passed
Typically consent resolutions are approved by unanimous vote. However, they may adopt a simple majority vote so that if even one member opposes it, it can still go through.
Speech criticizing the Israeli government, or any government, is political speech protected under the First Amendment, and cannot be suppressed.
The American Civil Liberties Union
Our Campaign
Montgomery County Council is considering a resolution that will adopt a re-definition of antisemitism. The IHRA definition threatens free speech and civil liberties by wrongfully and harmfully conflating criticism of Israel as being anti-Semitic.
Adoption of the “IHRA definition” is divisive and built upon a growing right-wing effort to censor Palestinians and human rights activists. Controversial definitions do more to divide us than bring us together. The Trump Administration launched this campaign through a 2019 Executive Order to enable the Department of Education to use the IHRA definition to censor free speech about Palestine on college campuses. There was intense criticism by several prominent national human rights and civil liberties groups.
Whether it is Florida’s “Don’t say Gay,” Montgomery, Alabama’s resolution against Critical Race Theory or Montgomery County efforts to silence criticism of Israel’s human rights abuses, people of conscience need to take a stand against government efforts to silence dissent or political beliefs that they may disagree with. The target of the IHRA definition is the truth.
This campaign is powered by Peace Action Montgomery.
Read the letter from Defending Rights and Dissent and the National Coalition Against Censorship expressing Civil LIberties Concerns
Read this article about our campaign
More details about this campaign can be found here.
What Organizations Say about the IHRA Redefinition
If criticism of Israeli policies is reflexively conflated with anti-Semitism, then robust debate and academic freedom will suffer.
Harsh criticism of Israel — even if it involves questioning the existence of a Jewish state — is speech protected by the 1st Amendment. Students have a right to be protected from harassment and discrimination, but they don’t need to be shielded from opinions they find objectionable or offensive.
Harsh criticism of Israel — even if it involves questioning the existence of a Jewish state — is speech protected by the 1st Amendment. Students have a right to be protected from harassment and discrimination, but they don’t need to be shielded from opinions they find objectionable or offensive.
Proponents of overly broad definitions of antisemitism and proponents of eliminating teaching about the history of racial and other violence [critical race theory] share a desire to mobilize the government to enforce particular, emaciated accounts of history, harm, and injury.
peaceactionmontgomery.org 