University of Aberdeen and the IHRA definition - SPSC Aberdeen statement
SPSC Aberdeen is deeply concerned that the University of Aberdeen is considering the adoption of the much discredited IHRA definition of antisemitism.
The principal purpose of the IHRA definition is not to combat antisemitism but rather to undermine challenges to the State of Israel's breaches of Palestinians' human rights in defiance of international law. This has been acknowledged by Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN Gilad Erdan when he was a Minister in the Knesset. The author of the definition himself, Professor Kenneth Stern, has condemned its misuse and has made strong representation against it being adopted by universities, as have Palestinian academics and journalists, organisations representing Jewish communities, and scholars of antisemitism and Holocaust studies who propose an alternative definition in the Jerusalem Declaration.
Closer to home, Baroness Falkner, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, in a House of Lords debate on anti-Semitism stated that the IHRA definition is “extremely poorly worded and probably unactionable in law,” and “directly conflicts with the duty on universities to protect free speech”. For more detail on the implications on UK universities’ codes of conduct, please refer to the relevant report published by University College London.
The IHRA definition has played a key role in the shocking and unjust dismissal of Professor David Miller of the University of Bristol - despite a Queen’s Counsel engaged by the University of Bristol itself concluding that Professor Miller’s comments were lawful. The definition sows division on university campuses, and ultimately leads to reputational damage.
We have already spoken to scores of University of Aberdeen students and staff who share our deep concerns with the potential IHRA adoption, as well as many calling into question the process thus far, and the way views of different groups have been represented. Manal Shqair, a Palestinian former student of University of Aberdeen added:
"In addition to my development at the academic level, what marks my experience at the University of Aberdeen is that it was a space where I could share with others what it means to live under Israel’s bellicose military occupation through the different events organized by the Palestine society.
I am really concerned that by adopting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, the University of Aberdeen will yet become another space where talk about Palestine is silenced- a state we are struggling to break with as part of our struggle to realize our rights of self-determination and entitlement to humanity."
We demand that the University of Aberdeen, as a beacon of free speech in the City, send a clear message of political impartiality and oppose the undermining of the academic freedom to expose human rights abuses, be these in Occupied Palestine or anywhere else in the world.
SPSC Aberdeen