OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 13

14 | JULY 1 • 2021 

GEO member Amir 
Fleischmann said 
he was involved in 
penning the GEO 
statement to push the 
organization to “take 
a stronger position 
against Israeli apart-
heid.”
“I am proud to be Jewish and 
that my labor union is finally 
standing up for Palestinian human 
rights.” said Fleischmann, who is 
a graduate student and lecturer 
studying political theory. 
When asked how the one-sided 
GEO statement may impact the 
classroom in terms of pro-Israel 
students fearing of expressing their 
opinions or refuting misinforma-
tion about Israel, Fleischmann said 
there has been a history of pro-Is-
rael students that have been doing 
the silencing, referring to several 
incidents in 2018 where the uni-
versity rebuked two professors for 
refusing to write students letters of 
recommendation for study abroad 
in Israel programs. 
“We saw this in 2018, when 
one of our [Jewish] members was 
sanctioned by the university for 
refusing to write a letter of recom-
mendation to an Israeli institution 
in accordance with BDS. We saw 
this again recently, when Muslim 
and Palestinian students were 
harassed and bullied by Israeli 
apartheid apologists for taking a 
stance in defense of Palestinian 
human rights.”
In response to the statements, 
Jewish organizations such as Hillel 
have attempted to open dialogue 
with the student governments and 
other student organizations on why 
some Jewish students see the state-
ments and resolutions as inflamma-
tory and divisive.

HILLEL STATEMENT
In emails released to the U-M 
Jewish community, U-M Hillel 

Many alumni of higher education 
across the country as well at the 
University of Michigan have launched 
a campaign for universities and other 
institutions to adopt the International 
Holocaust Remembrance Association’s 
(IHRA) Working Definition of antisemi-
tism so hatred toward Jews on campus 
can be more clearly identified. 
IHRA defines antisemitism as: “A 
certain perception of Jews, which 
may be expressed as hatred toward 
Jews. Rhetorical and physical mani-
festations of antisemitism are direct-
ed toward Jewish or non-Jewish indi-
viduals and/or their property, toward 
Jewish community institutions and 
religious facilities.”
Manifestations of antisemitism 
include “drawing analogies between 
the actions of Israel to Nazis, declar-
ing Israel a racist — and thus ille-
gitimate — endeavor, holding it to 
standards expected of no other dem-
ocratic state, denying Israel’s right to 
exist, and holding Jews collectively 
responsible for its actions.”
Criticizing the Israeli government 
and its policies, as one would do to 
any other country, is not considered 
antisemitism according to the IHRA. 
According to the American Jewish 
Committee, 30 American universities 
have endorsed this definition as of 
May 2021. 
Carly F. Gammill, director of 
StandWithUs Center for Combating 
Antisemitism, said that because it man-
ifests itself in many ways, antisemitism 
often gets overlooked. 
“The IHRA provides 
a critical tool in help-
ing to ensure that 
anti-Jewish activity is 
readily identified and 
properly addressed in 
the same manner as 
other forms of bigotry 
and discrimination,” said 
Gammill. “While critics 
of the IHRA definition often claim that it 
restricts protected speech and/or false-
ly labels criticism of Israel as antisem-
itism, these claims are easily disposed 
of simply by looking to the definition’s 

text. The IHRA contains absolutely no 
mechanism for [or even mention of] 
punishing any type of speech.”
U-M spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald 
would not indicate whether the uni-
versity would consider adapting the 
definition but said “the recent violence 
in the Middle East has a direct impact 
on the wellbeing of students studying 
within our campus community.”
Fitzgerald stated that it is the pol-
icy of the University of Michigan to 
maintain an academic and work envi-
ronment free of discrimination and 
harassment for all students, faculty 
and staff.
“At the University of Michigan, we 
remain committed to creating a com-
munity of scholars where everyone 
feels safe and each one of us is able 
to share our views without reprisal.”

SEEKING TO ADOPT IHRA AT U-M
Alums for Campus Fairness, a non-
profit organization that counters 
antisemitism and anti-Zionism, 
said some 900 members who are 
U-M alumni, parents and students 
launched a campaign for the universi-
ty to adopt the definition. 
Executive Director Avi Gordon said 
ACF members are work-
ing behind the scenes 
with administrators 
and donors at U-M to 
push for acceptance of 
the resolution because 
“what has been hap-
pening at the University 
of Michigan is unac-
ceptable.”
“The IHRA definition should be 
adapted because, the next time 
something on campus does happen, 
there will be a clear definition in place 
as to what this type of hatred is, and 
we know what it is because it’s been 
clearly defined,” said Gordon. “A lot 
of administrations don’t like to call 
things out for what they are because 
of the potential repercussions. But 
(adapting the IHRA antisemitism 
definition) would just be another tool 
in the university’s toolkit to call out 
hatred and bigotry.” 

IHRA Campaign
ON THE COVER

Carly F. 
Gammill

STANDWITHUS/TIMES OF ISRAEL

Avi Gordon

TIMES OF ISRAEL

Amir 
Fleischmann

