Equality and fairness

Antisemitism

Thurrock Council has pledged to fight antisemitism.

We have adopted the working definition of antisemitism as set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), below:

"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."

We have also adopted the IHRA's guidelines on antisemitism. These include behaviours – listed below – that could be examples of antisemitism, depending on the circumstances.

Antisemitism can be:

  • 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 – for example, 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 – for example, by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour

  • applying double standards by requiring of it behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation

  • using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism – for example, 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