Law for Palestine has joined Human Rights Watch and more than 100 human rights and civil rights organisations, including Amnesty International, to urge the United Nations to respect human rights in its efforts to combat antisemitism.

Over 40 additional organisations added their names to an update of an April 3, 2023 open letter from Human Rights Watch and other organisations to Secretary-General António Guterres and High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Angel Moratinos. In that letter, the organisations urged the United Nations not to endorse or adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

This definition has been used to falsely label some criticism of Israeli government policies or advocacy for Palestinian rights antisemitic, the organisations said.

The groups said antisemitism “poses real harm to Jewish communities around the world and requires meaningful action to combat it.” They said that governments and world leaders should condemn antisemitism and take steps to protect Jewish communities, including holding those responsible for hate crimes accountable.

However, they cautioned the UN leadership to ensure that its efforts to combat antisemitism “do not inadvertently embolden or endorse policies and laws that undermine fundamental human rights, including the right to speak and organize in favor of Palestinian rights and to criticize Israeli government policies.”

The organisations added that if the UN were to endorse or adopt the IHRA definition, governments and courts could misuse it to restrict criticism of Israeli government policies or advocacy for Palestinian rights, with a chilling effect on freedom of expression. The IHRA working definition has repeatedly been misused in this way, the groups said. They noted that there are at least two other definitions that a number of scholars say are less open to being misused: the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexus Document.

Human Rights Watch noted that, over the past two weeks, the number of signatories has increased to 104 from 60. The increase in support among human rights and civil rights organisations reflects growing concern about the use of the IHRA working definition and the need to ensure that the fight against antisemitism is not sidetracked

In addition to the Law for Palestine, the signatories included the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Palestinian human rights group Al Haq, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, Americans for Peace Now, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and Breaking the Silence among the 104 groups that endorsed the letter.

* To read the full text of the civil society letter to UN on human rights and antisemitism, and the list of signatory groups/organisations, click here