Americans for Peace Now (APN) commends the Biden administration for the plan it published today to confront the urgent problem of antisemitism in the United States. Sadly, over the past few years, antisemitism, like so many forms of hatred, has become increasingly prevalent and increasingly public. 

And we thank the administration for focusing on the very real threats of antisemitism and not endorsing or otherwise codifying into law the problematic International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

APN joined other Progressive Israel Network member organizations in a statement welcoming the administration’s plan. Read that statement here.

For the past several years, APN has urged the federal government, state and local governments and other institutions to refrain from endorsing the IHRA definition. The IHRA definition and its examples has been politically weaponized to quash legitimate criticism and activism directed at Israeli government policies by tarnishing individuals and organizations as antisemitic. We are proud to have been one of the voices ensuring that, as they set out to devise a national strategy to fight antisemitism, the White House and other federal agencies were aware of the threat that the IHRA definition poses both to free speech and to the effectiveness of the fight against antisemitism. And crucially, we pushed back on the prominent lie that support for IHRA is a consensus position in the American Jewish community.  

It is a testament to this administration’s dedication to freedom of speech and to the breadth of the communal opposition to the IHRA definition that it was able to withstand the immense pressure from powerful organizations, activists and politicians to endorse IHRA and to codify it into law. We commend the administration for its resolve and good sense.

APN’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “Combating antisemitism is incredibly important. I’m grateful to President Biden and his administration for being focused on that, and not succumbing to those who demanded the codification of the IHRA definition so that they could use false accusations of antisemitism to attack those who criticize indefensible Israeli policies. I applaud President Biden, as well as Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt and her team.”