A CALL will be made next week that the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's definition of antisemitism is officially adopted in north Cumbria.

Councillors David Moore (Gosforth, Conservative) and Tony Markley (Solway Coast, Conservative) are set to propose the motion that Cumberland Council makes the move at next week's meeting of the full council.

Their motion proposes that the council resolves to follow the example of the UK Government, the Crown Prosecution Service, more than 130 local authorities including all of the council’s predecessors and more than 30 other countries, by adopting the definition "in full, and without qualification or reservation".

They also provide a number of examples of antisemitism and the motion further states: "Council further resolves that any breach of the definition will be treated in accordance with the Code of Conduct in the same way that any other incident of racism would be."

The definition states: “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."

According to the motion, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

  • 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, dehumanising, demonising, 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 the Second World War (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 endeavour;
  • Applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour 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 characterise 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.

Tuesday's (November 21) public meeting of the full council is due to start at 1pm at the Civic Centre in Carlisle.