BREAKING: House passes bill to criminalize criticism of Israel

H.R. 6090 expands definition of antisemitism to also include criticism of the State of Israel, which would be an unprecedented restriction of free speech should this bill become law

The US House has just passed HR 690 which expands the definition of antisemitism to include any criticism of the state of Israel. Let’s Address This.

Numerous Jewish groups as well as the ACLU staunchly oppose this HR 6090 for a number of critical reasons. First, it is truly an unprecedented bill that will absolutely have a chilling effect on Free Speech, especially on college campuses where students and professors from across the faith spectrum are peacefully protesting Israel's war on Gaza.

Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of the Jewish-led group Americans for Peace Now had this to say about HR 6090:

Antisemitism is the hatred of Jews. Unfortunately, one doesn't need to look far to find it these days. But the supporters of this bill [HR 6090] are looking in the wrong places. They are interested in supporting right-wing views and narratives on Israel and shutting down legitimate questions and criticisms by crying 'antisemite' at everyone, including Jews who oppose Israel's far-right government. With this disingenuous effort, House Republicans have failed to seriously address antisemitism. I hope the Senate does better.

Likewise, the ACLU sent a stark letter to Congress, in part writing:

The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter urging Congress to oppose H.R. 6090, the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. As the letter notes, federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and harassment by federally funded entities. H.R. 6090 is therefore not needed to protect against antisemitic discrimination; instead, it would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism.

Moreover, never before has the United States ever passed a bill that makes criticism of a foreign state government illegal, and the reason is obvious. Individual people have rights, governments do not have rights. Several leading members of Congress, like representative Jerry Nadler, a Jewish American openly condemned HR 6090 and voted against it, reasoning:

Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute unlawful discrimination. By encompassing purely political speech about Israel into Title VI’s ambit, the bill sweeps too broadly.

Jewish people as human beings deserve protection of equal rights and deserve safety in who they are—but to criminalize the criticism of a state entity is extraordinarily dangerous precedent. By the same logic, a future Congress could criminalize criticism of Pakistan as anti-Muslim because it's the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, or of Iran as anti-Muslim because it's the Islam Republic of Iran. Obviously, neither withstands scrutiny past First Amendment free speech rights. Similarly, criminalizing the criticism of the state of Israel is at its foundation a flawed piece of legislation because the state of Israel is a government, it is not a person.

Finally, and perhaps worst of all, HR 6090 does nothing to actually combat the scourge of antisemitism. Serious issues like antisemitism deserve meaningful legislation to counter it, and this bill falls woefully short.

As of the writing of this article, the HR 6090 has not yet passed the Senate and has not yet been signed into law by President Biden. It is critical that we remain active and organized and ask our Senators and the President to vote no on HR 6090.