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Foreign ministry says mayor has poured ‘antisemitic gasoline on an open fire’ by scrapping IHRA definition
Israel’s foreign ministry has accused the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of pouring “antisemitic gasoline on an open fire” after he reversed a recent order by the outgoing mayor, Eric Adams.
“On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: he scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X.
Mamdani revoked an Adams-era order that adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which the previous administration said included “demonizing Israel and holding it to double standards as forms of contemporary antisemitism”.
Mamdani has expressed support for the Jewish population of NYC.
The only thing he did here that Israel is criticizing him for, is reaffirming the distinction between Jewish identity and the state of Israel. The definition he scrapped conflated the two; it was a bad-faith definition aimed at obfuscation.
It’s entirely possible to validly criticize the actions of a nation’s government without promoting hatred of its people; the fact of Israel being an ethnostate doesn’t change that.
It’s also harmful to conflate Jewish identity with Israeli politics, because there are many Jewish people who don’t support the actions of the far-right, ultra-orthodox government of the state of Israel. Conflating them results in the dispersal of blame for Israel’s actions across all Jewish people everywhere, and that is anti-semitic.
Also, Arabic is a semitic language, so doesn’t that make islamophobia a form of anti-semitism? That would mean Benjamin Netanyahu is the biggest anti-semite alive today. Just food for thought…
it also encourages anti-semitism against jewish by neonazis and further cements that belief, and also stereotypes of jews.
Probably half of my social circle are practicing Jews or come from Jewish families. Not only do none of them support Israel, but most of them are vastly more ferocious in their criticism than I am.
They’re really speedrunning the whole “Our entire diaspora hates us.” thing.
We attend a Passover seder every year where the host mother dedicates the ceremony to the people of Palestine, that they may one day be set free of their bondage and suffering as were the Jews in Egypt.
Easily 80% of the Jewish people we know are fiercely anti-zionist and horrified by the Israeli government.