Lawmakers will continue to push for state definition of antisemitism in 2024

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Lawmakers are renewing the push to create a state definition of antisemitism in 2024.

Some Georgia lawmakers are renewing the push to create a state definition of antisemitism during the legislative session that begins Jan. 8.

Earlier this year, the state House passed House Bill 30, which would create a state definition of antisemitism based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition. It could be used to determine motivations in hate crime cases but would not create a new criminal charge.

State Rep. Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Georgia legislature, said a definition of antisemitism is necessary now more than ever.

“What I have heard is that people's eyes have been opened up," she said. "So anybody who used to think or wasn't sure that sometimes anti-Zionism could be antisemitism really have gotten an education recently, since Oct. 7.”

The FBI has warned Americans of increased antisemitic violence since the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks.

"If this bill can't pass now, I don't know what it would take," Panitch said.

The IHRA defines antisemitism as a "perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews" and can have both "rhetorical and physical manifestations." 

This includes "targeting of the state of Israel," although the alliance says on its website that "criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic."

Critics of HB 30 have raised concerns about the bill limiting free speech. The bill does include a line that prohibits it from being used to infringe upon free speech.

While the bill passed the House in 2023, it was stalled in the Senate. Sen. Ed Setzler, an Acworth Republican who says he supports the aims of the bill, amended the measure to write the definition directly into law, and changed the definition to define antisemitism as a "negative" perception of Jews instead of a "certain" perception. The bill's sponsors asked the bill to be tabled. 

Panitch said that the IHRA definition, which is also used by the federal government, is the most contemporary and it is important that it be used. 

"Dozens of countries at least participated in the formation of this definition, based on what they were seeing around the world," she said.