Motion on International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism

The following motion was passed with a majority of 68% at the members’ meeting on Wednesday 4th March 2026.

This branch notes:

1. That there has been a sharp rise in reported incidents of anti-Jewish discrimination/racism (antisemitism) in Britain since the escalation of violence in Israel/Palestine from October 2023, including the 2025 attack on Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue on Yom Kippur.
2. That over 100 human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’Tselem and the ACLU have criticised the IHRA working definition of antisemitism for repressing free speech and enabling false accusations against students, academics, and activists. 
3. UCU Congress passed a motion in 2021 against the adoption of the IHRA definition in Universities, and Goldsmiths UCU has adopted a similar motion.
4. More broadly, a legal challenge to the NHS, and a mass campaign targeted at Ireland’s government, due to their respective adoptions of the IHRA definition.
5. That the right to protest Israel’s acts – deemed genocidal in a United Nations report of September 2025 – has been heavily suppressed across Britain, including at the University of Nottingham.

This branch believes:

1. That the IHRA working definition of antisemitism enables the conflation of anti-Jewish discrimination/racism with critique of the Israeli state’s actions. 

For example:

• Point 7 defines antisemitism as ‘Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour’.  This represses debate over the historical origins of Israel as a nation state. 
• Point 10 defines antisemitism as ‘drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’. This represses any debate that situates Israeli policy in relationship to far-Right politics and fascism. This, again, inhibits our ability to understand Israeli politics in a historical and global context. 

2. That the IHRA working definition of antisemitism distorts the meaning of antisemitism and thereby compromises the fight against anti-Jewish discrimination/racism.
3. That the IHRA working definition of antisemitism prevents legitimate critique of Israel, including critique the oppression of, and genocidal acts against, the Palestinian people. 
4. The IHRA disavows the plurality of Jewish beliefs and identities by conflating Jewish self-determination with Israel. As such, it contributes towards antisemitism.
5. That due to its overt ideological character and nebulous legal status, the IHRA working definition of antisemitism has had an overall detrimental impact on the exercise of freedom of speech in academic institutions. 

This branch resolves to:

1. Strive towards the University of Nottingham relinquishing its adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
2. Work with Jewish staff and students to identify alternative ways of understanding and defining anti-Jewish discrimination/racism, including potentially the Jerusalem Declaration, with the explicit goal of combatting anti-Jewish hatred.
3. Protect free speech and the right to protest Israel’s apartheid regime and genocidal acts against Palestinians on campus and the broader public sphere of the United Kingdom.