Anti-Semtism Order

From USA Today:

“Trump to sign executive order on anti-Semitism that critics say attacks free speech”

President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Wednesday designed to cut off aid to colleges that tolerate anti-Semitism, but which critics call an effort to stifle free speech and criticism of Israel. The executive order aims to extend the scope of the section in the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin. It would now include anti-Semitism as well, said an administration statement on the new executive order. "The President will be signing an executive order on anti-Semitism to enshrine the definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance of anti-Semitism into an executive order, and clarify that Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act applies to anti-Semitic acts," the statement said. Trump is scheduled to sign the new executive order at a Hanukkah reception in the late afternoon. Critics said the order is really targeting criticism of Israel, particularly the "Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel movement" (BDS) that involves criticism of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. "This is not 'protecting Judaism under civil rights law,'" tweeted Sophie Ellman-Golan, director of an organization called Jews against White Nationalism. "This is using Jews and Judaism as a shield to go after Palestinians and anti-authoritarian professors and student activists." The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights criticized the order as an attempt to silence protests against Israel, saying in a statement that it is "a clear instrument of repression targeting activism for freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people on college campuses." Trump, who has made an appeal to Jewish voters a major part of his election strategy, has denounced BDS and similar movements that call for economic boycotts of Israel. The president has also touted his ties to Israel. "The Jewish state has never had a better friend in the White House than your president, Donald J. Trump," he said at a weekend conference in Florida sponsored by the Israeli-American Council. Trump's critics have also accused him of engaging in anti-Semitic stereotypes. During that Florida speech, Trump joked the audience had to support him over the Democrats because “you’re not going to vote for the wealth tax.” Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said "we strongly denounce these vile and bigoted remarks in which the president – once again – used anti-Semitic stereotypes to characterize Jews as driven by money and insufficiently loyal to Israel." Some critics said the new executive order comes dangerously close to declaring Judaism its own race or nationality, but supporters said that is not case. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO with the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted that the order "protects Jews and other religious minorities from discrimination" under civil rights laws, "but does NOT break new ground on identifying Jews as a protected class." The proposal does not differ much from previous actions of Democratic and Republican administrations to protect Jews and other religious groups in "a climate of rising anti-Semitism," Greenblatt said. “Anti-Semitism on campus is a critical issue," he said, "and we at ADL have supported bipartisan efforts to improve the federal tools to combat it for years."

^ With the shooting in New Jersey targeting Jews yesterday and the continued rise of Anti-Semitism (verbal attacks as well as physical attacks) in the US, the UK, France, Germany and many other countries around the world it is important that the Federal Governments work to stop these attacks from happening in  the first-place and when the attacks do occur then there needs to be tougher punishments. Targeting people because they are Jewish is a Hate Crime and should be treated as such everywhere. People who commit these Hate Crimes should be punished more severely. This Executive Order is a good start, but a lot more needs to be done to combat the anti-Semitic attacks on the rise. ^

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/12/11/trump-sign-anti-semitism-order-critics-say-stifles-free-speech/4396213002/