Foreign ministry says mayor has poured ‘antisemitic gasoline on an open fire’ by scrapping IHRA definition
Israel’s foreign ministry has accused the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of pouring “antisemitic gasoline on an open fire” after he reversed a recent order by the outgoing mayor, Eric Adams.
“On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: he scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X.
Mamdani revoked an Adams-era order that adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which the previous administration said included “demonizing Israel and holding it to double standards as forms of contemporary antisemitism”.
Conflating criticism of Israel and antisemitism is one thing Israel and antisemites agree on, except that they start from different ends of the same equation.
IIRC the courts in Australia ruled that it’s not inherently antisemitic to criticise the Israeli government.
BUT — reverse uno card — it found that conflating the actions of Israel with the actions of Jewish people can be antisemitic.
Both of which make sense to me if I understand it right.