Balfour Project newsletter: new definition of Antisemitism

New Declaration on Antisemitism

The Balfour Project opposes all forms of racism, bigotry and discrimination, including antisemitism.

We commend the recent Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism; one year in the making, by international scholars in antisemitism and related fields from Europe, the USA, Canada and Israel. The Declaration is intended as a response to the Working Definition on Antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)  in 2016, which has been a subject of controversy in the UK and elsewhere.

The authors of the Jerusalem Declaration hold that the IHRA’s definition and the examples it gives are neither clear nor coherent. They argue that the IHRA definition, which has been endorsed by some governments as a good benchmark, blurs the crucial difference between antisemitic speech and legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism. This causes confusion, while delegitimising the voices of Palestinians and others – including Jews – who hold views that are critical of Israel and Zionism. Such confusion, they argue, hinders the fight against the scourge of antisemitism. We at the Balfour Project agree with this important distinction.

The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism is very different from the IHRA definition, notably in that it specifies what is NOT antisemitic as well as what is.

The Jerusalem Declaration is not, and does not purport to be, a legal or quasi-legal instrument. It should not be codified into law. Nor should it be used to restrict the legitimate exercise of academic freedom. Most of its authors are Jewish. They include Menachem Klein of the Israeli Policy Working Group, who has spoken at several Balfour Project events. The strength of the Jerusalem Declaration is that it draws on universal principles. It links the legitimate fight against antisemitism with the fight against all other forms of racism. It is thus helpful to BrItish universities and institutions as they try to address this issue.

The publication of the Jerusalem Declaration is an important development. Like everything related to Israel/Palestine, including Britain’s historic responsibilities, it will provoke debate. Those ongoing British responsibilities are the focus of the Balfour Project. We are committed to open discussion. We draw the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism to your attention because it demonstrates the distinguished signatories’ commitment to open discussion.

May Zoom Conference:

The Balfour Project’s task is to remind the British of their country’s historic and existing responsibilities for the crisis in Israel-Palestine, examine that history in public and on our website, and persuade the UK’s political leaders to try to resolve the impasse and to support equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis: with actions rather than words. To that end, our first 2021 event continues a programme that has already garnered a response from the Government and our response to that:  all that stemmed from our Jerusalem conference last October and the Project’s Call for Action.

Thus, in May we are holding a virtual conference over two afternoons to focus on the rule of law- as it operates, or signally fails to do so, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.

On May 25, Baroness Hale of Richmond, former President of the UK Supreme Court, who most of us will remember for her ruling in September, 2019, that the suspension of Parliament by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was unlawful, will open the virtual conference with a short address.

Our keynote speaker will be the international criminal justice lawyer and writer, Philippe Sands, QC, widely hailed for his book East West Street, the interlinked story of his family, Nazi genocide and the Nuremberg trials.

Dominic Grieve, QC, a former Conservative MP and Attorney General, will chair the meeting, which will evolve into a panel discussion with the eminent lawyer-cum-activist Michael Sfard, an Israeli advocate in Jerusalem specialising in international law and a prominent campaigner in support of human rights in the Palestinian Territories; and Zaha Hassan, a human rights lawyer and visiting fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace in Washington DC.

On May 26, the key speaker will be Michael Lynk, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Territory, followed by a panel of Israeli and Palestinian activists and lawyers who will examine different aspects of the actual operation of Israeli law, how it affects Palestinian children, settlement expansion, house demolitions, building permits, family life and settler violence with impunity, all daily realities of Palestinian life in which the victims find they have little or no recourse to justice.

The second day, which will be hosted by Balfour Project Trustee Andrew Whitley, will end with a panel of British MPs chaired by Jack Straw, a former Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Justice Secretary in the Labour Governments between 1997 and 2010. The panel will discuss what practical steps Westminster can and should take on the questions of international and national laws.  John Alderdice, Baron Alderdice, former Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and a Liberal Democrat peer, will introduce Jack Straw and round off the session. It is planned that as with the statement “Equal Rights for Lasting Peace” which evolved from our October, 2020, virtual conference, “Jerusalem: From Past Divisions to a Shared Future” the Balfour Project, will recommend actions to our political leaders that can help to make real the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory..

Continued violations and dismissals of international law, Geneva Conventions and United Nations Security Council Resolutions must not be without consequences.

To try to draw as much political attention as possible to these aims, and to our two successive May sessions, we are writing personal invitations by real post to all of our MPs, on the assumption that in these days of lockdown emails are overabundant and easily missed. Letters to MPs can get results, as did that of one of our patrons in re the Dominic Raab reply we received nearly four months after the BP October Jerusalem statement. We suggest you try it, using our template if you wish.

  
Peace Fellowship Programme

The Peace Advocacy Fellowship Programme is an enlargement of last year’s programme, which brought us four Fellows, all of whom gave excellent accounts of themselves and their work to the Balfour Project’s Advisory Forum. This year we have 12 Fellows covering a wide range of Israel-Palestine-linked topics of concern and interest, and taking part in training sessions. Next year we plan to expand even further, to as many as 20 Fellows.

This is one area among many in which we can show to you, our charity’s financial contributors, in real terms, how your money is being spent.

Special tribute should be paid here to our BP colleague Matan Rosenstrauch who has worked so diligently and creatively to launch and sustain this programme.

 
Virtual Talks

For the time being, other than the two, half-day May conferences, we will continue, roughly every three weeks if possible, our programme of Zoom addresses. For our next event, John Lyndon, Executive Director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, will speak about conflict resolution as it has applied to Israel-Palestine and Northern Ireland on April 29; and on May 6,Nadia Hijab, President of Al-Shabaka: the Palestine Policy Network, will address how to move beyond statehood debates. 

We also hope in the next two months or so to host a Zoom screening of a new documentary film “Tinderbox”, directed and presented by presented by its British, Jewish Director Gillian Mosley, who travels through the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories asking “Who does the Holy Land belong to?” There will be a charge for viewing the film. There will also be a question and answer session. Details will appear on the Balfour Project website.

New Patrons

We are delighted to have welcomed two new patrons to the Balfour Project during the past months. First, Rabbi Danny Rich, who until March last year was Senior Rabbi and Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism in the UK; and most recently The Baroness Warsi, a former Conservative Cabinet Minister (as Sayeeda Warsi), the first Muslim to serve in a British Cabinet, and who resigned from  David Cameron’s Government in 2014 over its policy on Gaza.  These two new patrons increase the diversity and intellectual intensity of the Balfour Project’s wide membership and patronage, and we hope to be able to involve these and all our patrons more closely in our activities and debates in the future.

Here we repeat our appeal for funds to enable us to widen our membership and increase the scope and intensity of our different activities: funds have been augmented recently by generous donations from individuals, trusts and foundations, and we are delighted to see more adherents signing up to give regular, monthly payments. These, whatever their size, can be the foundation of the financial stability of a charity such as the Balfour Project.
 
Tim Llewellyn
Chair, Balfour Project Executive Committee