conflict & communication online, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2022
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

Keith Kahn-Harris
What we don’t know about IHRA: Practices of subversion and neglect

The debate about the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism (IHRA) has generally focused on the meaning of the definition itself and the consequences of its adoption or non-adoption by institutions. Yet we know very little of how IHRA is applied in practice by institutions that adopt it. This article discusses the case of Professor David Miller of Bristol University, where the adoption of IHRA by the university did not prevent his absolution (subsequently overturned by the university) from accusations of antisemitism by one legal opinion that made reference to IHRA itself. This incident demonstrates the possibility that institutions might ‘subvert’ or simply neglect IHRA when dealing with accusations of antisemitism. This possibility is rarely mentioned by activist proponents and opponents of IHRA. There is therefore an urgent need for empirical research into the ways IHRA is understood and applied by institutions that have adopted it.

The author:
Dr Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and writer, based in London. He is a senior lecturer at Leo Baeck College, an associate lecturer in the Department of Psycho-Social Studies, Birkbeck College and honorary research fellow in the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, the project director of the European Jewish Research Archive at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, and visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Jewish Culture, Society and Politics, Durham University. He is the author of seven books and editor of several collections, including Strange Hate: Antisemitism, Racism and the Limits of Diversity (Repeater 2019).

Contact: via website http://www.kahn-harris.org