President Trump’s order to expand the scope of potential anti-Semitism complaints on college campuses is raising the stakes of an already tense battle over how to define discrimination against Jews. For supporters of Trump’s order — which is aligned with bipartisan legislation that had stalled — the distinction is a clear matter of reining in those who would question Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. But the parallels they draw between Israel and the oppressive apartheid-era South African government have fueled charges of anti-Semitism. Among the prominent Jewish American groups who view the boycott movement as anti-Semitic is the Anti-Defamation League, which praised Trump’s order. AdvertisementThe Trump administration already has cited the newly codified International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism to probe potential campus discrimination against Jews.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 13, 2019 21:22 UTC