A bill that overwhelmingly passed the House by a 320-91 vote Wednesday evening would require the Department of Education’s division of civil rights to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism when investigating discrimination claims on campuses that receive federal funding. That definition includes “claims of Jews killing Jesus” as an example of “classic antisemitism,” which sparked opposition from some conservative Republicans in congress, who argue that it would allow universities the capability to punish Christian students for simply reading passages of the Bible.
The House passed the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act in light of a large number of pro-Palestine protests across American Universities, most notably at Columbia College where protestors have occupied entire sections of the campus in a manner similar to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone seizures during the protests in the summer of 2020. Similar, but less sizable protests have occurred at universities in Missouri as well, including Washington University and Saint Louis University. According to reports from media and students, these protests have occasionally become violent, and generally feature calls for “intifada,” the Arabic word for “uprising” which has been previously used to describe outbursts of conflict between Israeli and Palestinian people during the past century. Many Jewish students have expressed concerns for their safety amidst the sizable number of masked protestors on campus and the anti-Israel rhetoric they use, prompting several universities to move their classes to an online format for the remainder of the semester.
Christian conservatives are not the only ones concerned about the passage of the bill, however. The bill has also received pushback from the ACLU, which argues the bill contains an overbroad definition of antisemitism that encompasses protected political speech. The ACLU has warned this could pressure colleges and universities to restrict student and faculty speech critical of the Israeli government and its military operations out of fear of the college losing federal funding.