Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed House Bill 30 (HB30), a law which defines and criminalizes anti-Semitism, into effect on Wednesday at the Gold Dome in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday.
Despite the free speech and First Amendment implications that go with House Bill 30, the bill states that "Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to diminish or infringe upon any right protected under the first Amendment to the United States Constitution or the Georgia Constitution."
HB30 adopts the same "working" definition of antisemitism set forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
According to the IHRA:
"Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."
The IHRA includes examples to buttress its "working definition" of antisemitism:
✴️Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
✴️Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
✴️Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
✴️Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
✴️Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
✴️Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
✴️Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
✴️Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
✴️Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
✴️Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
✴️Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.