Rebecca Ruth Gould, PhD
1 min readFeb 23, 2024

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First, I appreciate you mentioning my longer 2018 article. Obviously you've done your research! This piece here doesn't claim to offer anything like a comprehensive discussion of the IHRA definition. It is about antisemitic racism and the need for a materialist approach to fight it. That is a big enough topic in itself, I would think! As you rightly guess however, I do have quite a bit to say about the IHRA def, that I have already said elsewhere. I have always argued, often at great length that the deepest problem with the IHRA def, lies in its very conceptualization of what it means to define racism (see "The Limits of Liberal Inclusivity: How Defining Islamophobia Normalizes Anti-Muslim Racism" in which I extend my critique to definitions of Islamophobia). However the actual text of the IHRA remains problematic, specifically its stipulations about Israel (which comprise 7 of the 11 examples). I dont think I need to spell that out here as I have done so in so many other places. You do make a valid point at the end ("whether a counter-document detailing legitimate criticisms of Israel wouldn't be fully adequate to solve the problem") and I appreciate that you are considering other options. Perhaps you already know about the JDA which is certainly a better alternative to the IHRA: https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/

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Rebecca Ruth Gould, PhD
Rebecca Ruth Gould, PhD

Written by Rebecca Ruth Gould, PhD

Poetry & politics. Free Palestine 🇵🇸. Caucasus & Iran. Writer, Educator, Translator & Editor. rgould.substack.com https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/rebecca-gould

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