Major Canadian academic group rejects Israel lobby’s anti-Semitism definition

The Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents more than 70,000 academic faculty and staff around the country, voted on a motion to oppose the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) so-called definition of anti-Semitism during its annual conference last week, reported by the Electronic Intifada
 

The IHRA definition has been pushed by Israel and its lobbies around the world to silence criticism of Israeli human rights violations.
 

It has been used against academics and activists in Canada since the government approved the adoption of the IHRA in 2019.
 

Israel lobby groups have even urged the Canadian government to use the IHRA as a political weapon to sabotage international aid funding.

Just weeks ago, B’nai Brith Canada, an anti-Palestinian lobby group that has long pushed for the formal conflation of Israel criticism with anti-Jewish bigotry, asserted that the government should only fund international humanitarian aid organizations that adhere to the IHRA definition.
 

In its motion, CAUT states that it “supports the academic freedom of its members and recognizes the need to safeguard the rights of scholars to critique all states, including the state of Israel, without fear of outside political influence, cuts to funding, censorship, harassment, threats, and intimidation.”

Human rights defenders across Canada have applauded the association’s move.