The Undergraduate Representative Body of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., passed a resolution on Nov. 20 condemning the public school’s implementation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism.
It passed by a vote of 14-2 with four abstentions, Zoe Oliver, vice president of marketing and public relations for the student government, told JNS.
The resolution, which JNS obtained, states that IHRA is “a weapon against student and faculty activism” and “is inadequate for combating antisemitism.” It denounces the university’s “rash implementation of IHRA.”
The resolution calls on the university to adopt, in the short term, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, in addition to IHRA, which is the official definition adopted under state law. That definition states that referring to Israel as an apartheid state and the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement are not antisemitic.
In the long term, the student government will advocate for IHRA to be removed from the university and state law altogether, and replaced with the Jerusalem Declaration, per the resolution.
A university spokesman told JNS that “the university has no involvement in expressions or resolutions passed by student leaders, and their votes are regarded as advisory and taken into account with other factors.”
“Virginia state law was the primary factor in George Mason University incorporating the IHRA working definition of antisemitism in university policy,” the spokesman said.
Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, told JNS that “it’s obvious that certain ways of talking about Israel and its supporters cross a line into offensive and hateful bigotry, and the IHRA definition provides a useful educational tool for understanding when that happens.”
“By contrast, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism—which the student resolution prefers—condones Israel-related antisemitic expression,” Elman said. “Like all campuses, GMU needs to be a place where Jewish people and other minority communities can feel a sense of belonging.”
She added that “by adopting the IHRA definition and aligning with Virginia state law, the university administration has absolutely done the right thing by the campus Jewish community.”
