The New Jersey State Senate is considering two bills which would drastically undermine democracy in the garden state. As we have previously reported; Bills S1292 and S2937 have been recommended to the New Jersey State Senate by the Tourism committee. These two bills are companion bills, meaning they stand or fall together. S1292 would include the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti semitism as the official state definition of anti semitism. The bill would further allocate 100,000 dollars to encourage New Jerseyans to snitch on their neighbors if they hear them engage in so called “anti Semitic activities or speech” through a public education campaign. S2937 would include the IHRA definition and the UN definition of Islamophobia as the official NJ state definitions of anti Semitism and Islamophobia.
While Anti Semitism is a growing threat to people all over the world, both Jews and non Jews; the use of this definition by the state of New Jersey will not help to stop actual anti Semitic violence or hate speech. In his speech announcing the bill, State Senator Jim Beach from district 6 said that “It has been extremely disturbing to see the increase in hate crimes across the country in recent months, especially as anti-Semitic incidents [which] were already on the rise.” He proposes this bill as a partial remedy to this problem. However, considering that seven of the 11 examples in the IHRA definition relate to Israel and criticism of Israel; this definition does little to actually combat the real instances of anti Semitism against Jewish people in New Jersey. Furthermore, the ACLU has stated, “in practice, the IHRA definition has been used consistently (and nearly exclusively) not to fight antisemitism, but rather defend Israel and harm Palestinians.” In Germany, this definition was used as the pretext for the police to shut down a conference discussing Palestinian liberation whose participants included anti Zionist Jews, Palestinians and others.
The most troubling aspect of these two bills is the fact that S1292 would allocate $100,000 of taxpayer money for a public campaign to promote the criminalization of pro Palestinian or anti Zionist speech. When he voted to recommend the bill out of committee, State Senator John McKeon who represents district 27, gave a speech in favor of the bill law. This speech was viewed by hundreds of people who attended the virtual session of the Tourism Committee where the bill was voted out of committee.
During that speech he gave one example of an incident that made him want to pass this legislation. In a classroom somewhere in New Jersey, a student had put the words “anti Zionist” on the back of their laptop. This student is further reported to have ‘leered’ at his Jewish classmates. In order to make sure that nothing like this happens again, we are encouraged to support this bill.
Since the Senator tactfully withheld the identity of the student or the school district they attended, we cannot verify the story. However, if this is an example of the behavior that will be penalized under this bill; then it will result in the disciplining of students for expressing Pro Palestinian or anti Zionist views. Are these the kinds of guidelines you want being given to principles, teachers and school resource officers? Do you want student’s private property or clothing to be penalized if its messages offend other students? Students should be allowed to learn, and that means sharing space with students who have different views!
If you agree with me, please help fight this terrible legislation! The New Jersey State Senate will be meeting on Wednesday June 26th at 12PM and Thursday June 27th at 1PM in the Senate Chambers located at 125 W State Street in Trenton. I don’t know if this legislation will be discussed at this time, but I am encouraging anyone who can to take the time to find their state senator and attend one of these two sessions. If your State Senator or one of his aides attends the session, you will have the opportunity to let them know where you stand on these bills face to face either before or after official business concludes. If they don’t attend, it will still give you valuable experience engaging with the state government.
However, not all of us can take time out of our workdays to attend boring political meetings, but even if you can you should still contact your state senator. Finally, American Muslim’s for Palestine are the group spearheading the fight against these bills, please follow them on Instagram for more updates and keep reading the New Jersey Progressive Agenda!