On January 31, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 30, codifying the definition of antisemitism, as formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), into state law. According to the legislation, law enforcement agencies in the state must consider the definition in the course of their enforcement. As the definition explicitly references criticism of Israel, pro-Palestinian activists fear it may open them up to prosecution, and even hate crimes charges, simply for organizing against the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza or occupation of Palestine in general.

“This is a desperate attempt to discredit criticism of Israel,” Sandra Tamari of the Adalah Justice Project told Truthout. “The Palestine movement is demanding an end to genocide and calling for freedom and equality.”

HB 30 makes no direct mention of Israel, but in remarks at its signing, Governor Kemp tied the bill’s passage to “the horrific terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7 that claimed the lives of over 1,200 Israelis.” In contrast, he made no mention of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of at least 27,968 Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera at the time of this writing. Kemp couldn’t have mentioned the genocide at all — unless he wanted to be charged with antisemitism.

In a growing attempt to repress criticism of Israel, Georgia is the latest of 10 states to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism into law. Although many of the states that have recently adopted, or are considering adopting, the IHRA definition are doing so in the aftermath of October 7, the Israeli government and pro-Israel organizations in the United States have been working with lobbyists to silence Israel’s critics for years.

Bills like HB 30 do not explicitly reference Israel. They reference “the working definition of antisemitism and the contemporary examples of antisemitism adopted by the [IHRA]” — which does explicitly reference Israel.

The IHRA is a Swedish-founded inter-governmental agency, which now includes 35 member countries, including Israel, and nine observer countries. Although the IHRA was ostensibly founded to combat Holocaust denialism, its definition of antisemitism was in fact a response to the Second Intifada, an uprising by Palestinians against the ongoing Israeli occupation, as Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) points out. Organizations committed to Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, like the American Jewish Committee, expressly sought a definition of antisemitism that would include anti-Zionism, and the IHRA’s working definition gave it to them in 2016.

Although the IHRA’s “Working Definition of........

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