Saturday, August 11, 2018

What witch-hunt?

The drafter of what later became popularly known as the  International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, including its associated examples, was the U.S. attorney Kenneth S. Stern

According to Stern, it had originally been designed as a ”working definition” for the purpose of trying to standardise data collection about the incidence of antisemitic hate crime in different countries. It had never been intended that it be used as a legal or regulatory device to curb academic or political free speech. Yet that is how it has now come to be used.

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 In the same document Stern specifically condemns as inappropriate the use of the definition for such purposes, mentioning, in particular, the curbing of free speech in UK universities, and referencing Manchester and Bristol universities as examples. 

Kenneth Stern is certainly no leftist. Nevertheless to his credit, the original author of the IHRA definition is a consistent defender of free speech who condemns the current McCarthyite-witchhunt usage of the IHRA definition.

taken from here

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