More than 100 Palestinian and Arab intellectuals, academics and journalists have criticised the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism in a letter to The Guardian at the weekend. 

They claim the “the fight against antisemitism has been increasingly instrumentalised by the Israeli government and its supporters in an effort to delegitimise the Palestinian cause and silence defenders of Palestinian rights”. 

The IHRA definition has been “deployed mostly” against left-wing or human rights groups supporting Palestinian rights and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, they say. 

“Through ‘examples’ that it provides, the IHRA definition conflates Judaism with Zionism in assuming that all Jews are Zionists, and that the state of Israel in its current reality embodies the self-determination of all Jews,” the letter argues. 

“We profoundly disagree with this. The fight against antisemitism should not be turned into a stratagem to delegitimise the fight against the oppression of the Palestinians, the denial of their rights and the continued occupation of their land.” 

It describes as “quite odd” one IHRA example of antisemitism – “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg, by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour”. 

This “does not bother to recognise that under international law, the current state of Israel has been an occupying power for over half a century… 

“It does not bother to consider whether this right includes the right to create a Jewish majority by way of ethnic cleansing and whether it should be balanced against the rights of the Palestinian people.” 

The IHRA definition “potentially discards” non-Zionist visions of Israel’s future such as a binational or secular democratic state. 

“The suppression of Palestinian rights in the IHRA definition betrays an attitude upholding Jewish privilege in Palestine instead of Jewish rights, and Jewish supremacy over Palestinians instead of Jewish safety,” the letter says. 

Signatories include well-known figures such as the writer Anton Shammas, professor of comparative literature, University of Michigan, Ramallah-based lawyer Raja Shehadeh and the emeritus professor of philosophy at Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, Sari Nusseibeh. 

Several British-based academics have signed the letter including Karma Nabulsi, professor of politics and international relations, Oxford University, Khaled Fahmy, professor of modern Arabic literature, Cambridge University and Gilbert Achcar, professor of developmental studies at Soas.