By GARRETT BERGQUIST
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
The author of legislation to prohibit antisemitism in education on Tuesday said skyrocketing antisemitic attacks make the bill more urgent than ever.
The Indiana House of Representatives on Tuesday advanced a bill to prohibit religious discrimination, including antisemitism, in education. Bill author Rep. Chris Jeter, a Republican from Fishers, said antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, which left roughly 1,200 dead, demonstrate the need to root out antisemitism.
Jeter
“It’s just something that we want to make very clear that we’re not going to allow to be taught in our schools, K through 12 and higher ed,” he said, “and we’re going to maintain solidarity with our Jewish community and our Jewish students and make sure they feel safe.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s annual tally of antisemitic incidents recorded nearly 3,700 such instances in 2022, a record. The organization has logged nearly 3,300 incidents in the three months since Oct. 7, more than any other full calendar year other than 2022.
Jeter’s measure incorporates into state law the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which among other things includes “requiring of (Israel) a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Peace activists such as Maliha Zafar, the executive director of the Indiana Muslim Advocacy Network, said that wording doesn’t provide a clear enough distinction between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government. She said students and faculty on university campuses already have faced disciplinary action for taking part in protests over Israel’s actions in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks.
“This relies on what’s happening around the world,” Zafar said. “If there are injustices happening in one place, we should be able to call it out whether or not it’s happening in other parts of the world.”
The bill includes language that states antisemitism does not include “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country.”
Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-Indianapolis) on Tuesday tried unsuccessfully to strip out the qualifier at the end of that phrase to more explicitly exclude criticism of Israel. Zafar said that amendment would have helped alleviate her concerns.
Jeter said he recognizes the concerns activists such as Zafar have but he believes the amendment Cherrish put forward Tuesday afternoon would have gone too far. He said his bill is not intended to suppress free speech.
“No definition is perfect, but I think we hit a really good spot using a universal definition,” Jeter said.
The bill passed the House on Tuesday. It is among the first to leave the chamber this session. It now heads to the Senate for consideration.