Israel-Hamas War

House passes bill to expand definition of antisemitism amid growing campus protests over Gaza war

It all comes at a time when college campuses and the federal government are struggling to define exactly where political speech crosses into antisemitism

Student protesters on the campus of Columbia University on April 30, 2024, in New York City.
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Student protesters on the campus of Columbia University on April 30, 2024, in New York City.

The House passed legislation Wednesday that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws, the latest response from lawmakers to a nationwide student protest movement over the Israel-Hamas war.

The proposal, which passed 320-91 with some bipartisan support, would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal anti-discrimination law that bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or national origin. It now goes to the Senate for a vote.

Action on the bill was just the latest reverberation in Congress from the protest movement that has swept university campuses. Republicans in Congress have denounced the protests and demanded action to stop them, thrusting university officials into the center of the charged political debate over Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war was launched in October, after Hamas staged a deadly terrorist attack against Israeli civilians.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill would broaden the legal definition of antisemitism to include the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity." Critics say the move would have a chilling effect on free speech throughout college campuses.

New York police officers arrived at Columbia University shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday night to clear protesters barricaded inside Hamilton Hall.

“Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute unlawful discrimination,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said during a hearing Tuesday. "By encompassing purely political speech about Israel into Title VI’s ambit, the bill sweeps too broadly.”

Advocates of the proposal say it would provide a much-needed, consistent framework for the Department of Education to police and investigate the rising cases of discrimination and harassment targeted toward Jewish students.

“It is long past time that Congress act to protect Jewish Americans from the scourge of antisemitism on campuses around the country,” Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., said Tuesday.

The expanded definition of antisemitism was first adopted in 2016 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an intergovernmental group that includes the United States and European Union states, and has been embraced by the State Department under the past three presidential administrations, including Joe Biden's.

Previous bipartisan efforts to codify it into law have failed. But the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas militants in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza have reignited efforts to target incidents of antisemitism on college campuses.

Separately, Speaker Mike Johnson announced Tuesday that several House committees will be tasked with a wide probe that ultimately threatens to withhold federal research grants and other government support for universities, placing another pressure point on campus administrators who are struggling to manage pro-Palestinian encampments, allegations of discrimination against Jewish students and questions of how they are integrating free speech and campus safety.

The House investigation follows several high-profile hearings that helped precipitate the resignations of presidents at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. And House Republicans promised more scrutiny, saying they were calling on the administrators of Yale, UCLA and the University of Michigan to testify next month.

The House Oversight Committee took it one step further Wednesday, sending a small delegation of Republican members to an encampment at nearby George Washington University in the District of Columbia. GOP lawmakers spent the short visit criticizing the protests and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s refusal to send in the Metropolitan Police Department to disperse the demonstrators.

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A counter-protester throws a fence at pro-Palestinian protesters next to their encampment on the UCLA campus on May 1, 2024.
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Counter-protesters attack a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the UCLA campus on May 1, 2024.
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NYPD officers in riot gear break into a building at Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian students are barricaded inside, on April 30, 2024 in New York.
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Pro-Palestinian supporters climb a fence during demonstrations at The City College Of New York on April 30, 2024 in New York City.
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Columbia University pro-Palestine demonstrators barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall, an academic building that has been occupied in past student movements, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The banner reads the name of a Palestinian child allegedly killed by the Israeli military.
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Hundreds of students gather at San Francisco State University to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza, on April 29, 2024 in Stanford, Calif.
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A man holds up a Palestinian flag as activists and students chant at George Washington University on Monday, April 29, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
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Pro-Israeli protestors on the UCLA campus on Sunday, April 28, 2024 in Los Angeles.
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Tension rises between City College of New York students and police as the students protest against the Israel-Hamas war on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
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A woman holds a Jewish Students for Palestine placard at a pro-Palestinian rally on the Penn State University campus on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
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Students gather at Northeastern University in Boston to protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza, on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
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A pro-Palestinian demonstrator and a pro-Israeli demonstrator clash on the UCLA campus on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
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Supporters of an Israel protest on the University of Texas campus in Austin, on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
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Pro-Palestinian students chant during a protest at Emory University on April 25, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga.
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Indiana State Police arrest dozens of people during a pro-Palestinian protest on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Ind. on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
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A pro-Israeli protest near Columbia University students participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment on their campus on Thursday, April 25, 2024 in New York.
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A person is detained by police as pro-Palestinian students protest the Israel-Hamas war on the University of Texas campus in Austin, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
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Students protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza as they set up an encampment on the grounds of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
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Rawda Ghalban, a junior, uses a megaphone to chant with fellow pro-Palestine supporters during a rally against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minn.
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NYPD officers clear away tents from an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian students and protesters on the NYU campus on Monday, April 22, 2024.
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Pro-Palestinian students and activists face police officers as they protest the Israel-Hamas war on the NYU campus on Monday, April 22, 2024.

Bowser on Monday confirmed that the city and the district’s police department had declined the university’s request to intervene. “We did not have any violence to interrupt on the GW campus,” Bowser said, adding that police chief Pamela Smith made the ultimate decision. “This is Washington, D.C., and we are, by design, a place where people come to address the government and their grievances with the government.”

It all comes at a time when college campuses and the federal government are struggling to define exactly where political speech crosses into antisemitism. Dozens of U.S. universities and schools face civil rights investigations by the Education Department over allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Among the questions campus leaders have struggled to answer is whether phrases like “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” should be considered under the definition of antisemitism.

The proposed definition faced strong opposition from several Democratic lawmakers, Jewish organizations as well as free speech advocates.

In a letter sent to lawmakers Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union urged members to vote against the legislation, saying federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and harassment.

“H.R. 6090 is therefore not needed to protect against antisemitic discrimination; instead, it would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism,” the letter stated.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the centrist pro-Israel group J Street, said his organization opposes the bipartisan proposal because he sees it as an “unserious” effort led by Republicans “to continually force votes that divide the Democratic caucus on an issue that shouldn’t be turned into a political football.”

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Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil, Collin Binkley and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

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