RSS
Oklahoma Legislator Introduces Bill to Adopt IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
The Tulsa, Oklahoma skyline. Photo: Photomakers/Wikimedia.
Oklahoma State Rep. John Waldron, a Democrat elected in Tulsa, has introduced legislation that would use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to guide state employees in assessing bigotry against Jews.
Rising antisemitism on college campuses motivated Waldron to draft a bill to aid schools in identifying hate speech. He said he hoped to “give higher education tools for defining what political speech, and therefore protected under the First Amendment, and hate speech that tends toward violence, and should be dealt with according to administrative procedure is,” according to KTUL ABC 8 in Tulsa.
The legislation, House Bill 2243, was introduced last week and says that “state officials and institutions have a responsibility to protect citizens from acts of hate and bigotry motivated by discriminatory animus, including antisemitism, and must be given the tools to do so; valid monitoring, informed analysis and investigation, and effective policymaking all require uniform definitions.”
Joe Roberts, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, released a statement advocating for the legislation.
“For Jewish Oklahomans, HB 2243 is more than policy — it is a statement that Oklahoma stands firmly with the Jewish community against rising hate,” Roberts said. “By adopting the IHRA definition, Oklahoma is taking a crucial step in ensuring that our community is protected, our voices are heard, and our concerns are taken seriously. The IHRA definition is the gold standard in identifying and addressing antisemitism, and its adoption here will help build a safer and more inclusive Oklahoma for all.”
IHRA — an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries including the US — adopted the “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum, and it is now used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations. Dozens of US states have also formally adopted it through law or executive action.
According to the definition, 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.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.
The Oklahoma legislation describes the IHRA definition as “an essential definitional tool used to determine contemporary manifestations of antisemitism and includes useful examples of discriminatory anti-Israel acts that can cross the line into antisemitism.” The bill also notes its usage “by various agencies of the federal government and by over 30 governments around the world.”
Opponents of state legislation to codify into law the IHRA definition often claim that such moves threaten free speech, particularly criticism of Israel. However, the text of Waldron’s bill explicitly counters that objection, stating, “Nothing in this section shall be construed to diminish or infringe upon any right protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or the Oklahoma Constitution.”
The Oklahoma state legislature has scheduled the bill for its first reading on Feb. 3.
Other states where representatives have worked recently to introduce or pass similar laws utilizing the IHRA definition include New York, Ohio, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and South Dakota, among others. According to the Combat Antisemitism Movement, as of Nov. 1, 2024, 1,262 entities worldwide have adopted the definition, including 45 countries, 37 US state governments, and 96 city and county governments.
In a Wednesday guest column in The Oklahoman, Roberts further advocated for the bill and defended the IHRA definition from its detractors’ conventional argument.
“Critics of the IHRA definition have raised concerns about free speech, arguing that defining antisemitism in law could suppress legitimate criticism of Israel. This is simply not true,” Roberts wrote. “The IHRA definition explicitly states that criticism of Israel, similar to that leveled against any other country, is not antisemitic. What the definition does do is distinguish between legitimate discourse and hateful rhetoric — such as denying Israel’s right to exist, holding Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s actions, or using classic antisemitic tropes to demonize the Jewish state.”
Roberts wrote that Waldron’s legislation “does not criminalize speech, it simply provides guidance for recognizing when antisemitism is at play.” He concluded his column warning that “antisemitism is not just a Jewish issue; it is a threat to the fabric of our society. It is an attack on the values that bind us together as Oklahomans and as Americans. If we are serious about protecting our way of life, we must act now. Pass HB 2243.”
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 8,800 Jews lived in Oklahoma in 2024, making up 0.22 percent of the state’s population.
Oklahoma Gov. J. Kevin Stitt has urged more Jews to move to Oklahoma and called for his fellow Christians to learn from Jewish traditions. “The Jewish community is welcome in Oklahoma,” he told the New York Post last year. “When you think about the values of who we are as Oklahomans it matches with the Jewish community, family-focused, very faith-focused, entrepreneurial, hard-working.”
Stitt, a self-described “Old Testament-loving Christian,” added, “Christians — we don’t do a good job of bringing the family together and really setting aside electronics and, and really focusing on the Sabbath. You know, one day a week, and I just think that’s something that we can learn a lot from the Jewish community.”
The post Oklahoma Legislator Introduces Bill to Adopt IHRA Definition of Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
How Does ‘An Eye for an Eye’ Hold Up Today?
A Torah scroll. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” is one of the best-known rules not only in the Torah, but universally. It was recorded in the Hammurabi code of Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago. This rule still applies in many legal systems, and is sometimes taken literally. It is clear, however, that this statement in the Torah cannot be taken literally at all.
The Talmud (Bava Kama 83b to 84a) raises an obvious question: Perhaps one thinks it means literally an eye; in that case, if a blind man blinded another or if a cripple maimed another, how would he be able to give an eye for an eye literally?
There are even greater challenges. What if a person who has no teeth puts out the tooth of somebody who has a full set? How are you going to take a tooth for a tooth? Did they have some sort of mechanism for judging a bruise for a bruise? There was indeed a judging system:
If two men are involved in a fight when a pregnant woman comes in between them and as a result there is a miscarriage but there’s no other physical damage [this must have been a pretty common occurrence to be specified], the punishment should be in accordance with what the husband places the value of his lost child and that should be assessed by the judges.
This is then followed immediately by, life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a bruise for a bruise, a wound for a wound.
But then in the next verse, the Torah says that if a person has a slave and he damages him, puts out his eye or knocks out his teeth, the slave should go free. On both sides of this law, you have laws that deal with financial compensation assessed by the judges in relation to the injury or the loss — as indeed would happen in most legal systems today.
The second time this law is repeated, slightly changed, is in this week’s reading (Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapter 24:). The context is a sad incident in which the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian father was involved in a fight and cursed God. Through his mother, he was part of the Israelite people. But because of his father, no tribe would accept him — an interesting example of how they defined Israelites then. He felt rejected and alienated. In a way I can feel sorry for him.
The law of cursing is phrased differently in verses 24:15 & 16, and expanded by adding different words for the crime of blasphemy, before reiterating the law.
Cursing God was not the way people nowadays curse or insult each other verbally. Curses were taken very seriously. It was the equivalent of rejecting not only God, but also the people. Laws of blasphemy are not only still very strongly adhered to in many countries today, but actually there is pressure now, thanks partly to the Islamic vote, to bring blasphemy back as a serious offense in Britain and elsewhere
There are people who like to make fun of the ancient Biblical laws and say how out of date they are. Yet in many ways, they are far more advanced and humanitarian than many laws that apply in different countries and under different religions around the world today.
The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York
The post How Does ‘An Eye for an Eye’ Hold Up Today? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
New York Times Pumps Out Al-Jazeera-Style Anti-Israel Videos for TikTok
The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The New York Times is using the Chinese-dominated TikTok video app to amplify and pump out Al-Jazeera-style short videos from Gaza demonizing Israel.
Some of the most-viewed recently posted videos on the Times TikTok account, which has 1.8 million followers, feature dramatic images—with credit omitted—and language describing Israel as an aggressor.
“Israel bombarded a large tent encampment for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, causing a deadly fire,” is a headline on one Times TikTok video that has been viewed more than 110,000 times.
“Families desperate for food gathered at distribution sites in Gaza as Israel’s halt on humanitarian aid surpassed 60 days,” is the headline on another video, viewed more than 100,000 times. There’s no transparency in the TikTok video of what journalist captured the video and conducted the interviews, or under what conditions or terms—it is simply credited to “The New York Times.”
The videos are also available, in horizontal format, on the Times website. There the videos carry bylines of Times staffers and, in some cases, very brief attribution of the source of the images. For example, an April 7 video headlined “Israeli Strike By a Major Hospital in Gaza Kills and Injures Journalists” is credited to Nader Ibrahim and Jon Hazell. Ibrahim is a “senior video journalist” based in London and came to the Times from the BBC; Hazell is a video editor also based in London. The video carries a brief attribution to “Anadolu Agency, via Reuters.” What the Times doesn’t tell its readers or viewers is that the “Anadolu Agency” is a state-controlled organ of the government of Turkey, which hosts and is ideologically aligned with Hamas.
Text that goes along with the video on the Times website says, “The strike killed one journalist and injured nine others, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. At least one more person was killed, according to Gaza’s government office. Among those injured was Hasan Aslih, whom the Israeli military accused, without providing evidence, of being a Hamas militant.”
The bias here is clear. “Gaza’s government office” is the Hamas terrorists, but the Times doesn’t say that. Israel gets the “without providing evidence” treatment, but actually the IDF did offer up details, with a statement on social media, “Asilh, who operates under the guise of a journalist and owns a press company, is a terrorist operative in Hamas’ Khan Yunis Brigade. On October 7, he infiltrated Israeli territory and participated in Hamas’ murderous massacre. Asilh documented and uploaded footage of looting, arson and murder to social media.”
The Times is churning out video after video along this model—produced not in the Times Jerusalem bureau, but by workers in London or New York relying on scantily credited video from foreign wire services, advancing a pro-Hamas narrative and giving short shrift to Israel’s point of view. An April 17 video credited to Ibrahim is headlined, “Israeli Strike Kills at Least a Dozen in ‘Humanitarian Zone,’ Gazan Officials Say.” Text says, “Gaza’s Civil Defense, the local emergency rescue service, reported that an Israeli strike overnight into Thursday in the Mawasi encampment area killed at least a dozen people, including children. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” Gaza’s “civil defense” is the Hamas terrorist organization.
A May 4, 2025 video by McKinnon de Kuyper includes images attributed only to “AFPTV” without disclosing to Times readers that the AFP board includes three representatives appointed by the French government. The Times describes de Kuyper as based in New York as a “weekend video journalist, operating livestreams and producing clips and breaking news packages for our website and social platforms.”
De Kuyper also is credited with a May 14, 2025, video headlined “Dozens Killed in Israeli Strikes in Northern Gaza, Officials Say.”
A May 7, 2025, video headlined “Airstrikes Kill Dozens in Gaza City” is attributed only to “By The New York Times.” It says, “The single deadliest bombing took place near a popular cafe in Gaza City where at least 33 people were killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.” The IDF announced May 8 that during a May 7 strike in the area of Gaza City it had eliminated “Muhammad Rasmi Marzouq Barakeh, a terrorist in Hamas’ military intelligence, who infiltrated Israel during the brutal October 7 massacre, and participated in the abduction of Yaffa Adar.” The Times video doesn’t report that.
Another video, also produced from London, amplifies a protest within Israel against the Israeli government’s policies.
I’ve had my quarrels and complaints over the years with print New York Times coverage produced by the newspaper’s journalists in Washington, New York, and Israel. But these propaganda-style videos are so strident and apparently calculated to generate an emotional response that they make previous New York Times news articles in print look, by comparison, like something produced by Israel’s government press office. What’s the point of having the New York Times produce this stuff when anyone can go to the TikTok account of Qatari-sponsored Al Jazeera and get basically the same material, also amplified to US-based viewers by TikTok’s proprietary algorithm?
Perhaps the New York Times management thinks they can profit in the short term by surfing the wave of Jew-hate, but it will be at the cost of eroding for longtime customers whatever credibility it built up over the years. Maybe they think that the legacy print customers aren’t paying attention to what the newspaper is doing on the social media platforms. Not so—we see it, and we are disgusted—not by what the Times is accusing Israel of doing, but by the Times’s abandonment, in the process, of traditional journalistic standards of quality, accuracy, and transparency.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
The post New York Times Pumps Out Al-Jazeera-Style Anti-Israel Videos for TikTok first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Even After Death of Terrorist, the AP Continues to Sell His Photos
The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
An Israeli air strike on Tuesday, May 13, killed a Palestinian journalist in Gaza whom the IDF identified as a Hamas terrorist, the army said. Despite HonestReporting calling out the Associated Press (AP), the agency continues to sell his photos on its global platform, in what some legal experts say may be considered material/financial support of a designated foreign terrorist organization in violation of US law that prohibits such conduct.
Allegations of Hassan Eslaiah’s links to terrorism should not have come as a surprise to the AP, which officially cut ties with the freelancer after HonestReporting’s November 2023 exposé of his infiltration into Israel during the October 7 massacre, which also saw the resurfacing of a photo of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar kissing him on the cheek.
Eslaiah’s death also provoked a social media outcry from self-appointed Palestinian “journalists,” as well as from the new Pulitzer Prize winner — people whom we have previously exposed for praising the October 7 massacre, documenting abductions of Israelis by Hamas, or excusing them.
Hassan Eslaiah (r) with former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (l)
AP’s Deafening Silence
Although we reached out to the AP twice for comment, the wire service continues to ignore our revelation last week of more than 40 photos by Eslaiah on its digital platform, which serves hundreds of media outlets worldwide. The photos’ prices range between 35 and 495 US dollars.
Our story, which detailed the possible legal ramifications of the AP selling Eslaiah’s material, was published after the IDF targeted and wounded him in southern Gaza in early April, while publicly identifying him as a member of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade who had been posing as a journalist.
On May 13, he was killed in a precise air strike on the Nasser hospital in Gaza along with other terrorists, the IDF said.
Interestingly, Eslaiah’s specific photos of the October 7 atrocities inside Israel have been removed from the AP’s platform, and it’s not clear whether he received royalties when his remaining photos were purchased.
But the credit Eslaiah still gets from a respected news outlet is certainly a reputation booster. And either way, the AP can still make money off of his propaganda for Hamas:
Social Media Outcry
Meanwhile, some self-appointed Palestinian journalists and the new Pulitzer Prize winner used the X social media platform (formerly Twitter) to eulogize their admired colleague, who also happened to receive a heartfelt send-off from Hamas.
Eslaiah received a prominent lamentation from Mosab Abu Toha, a Gazan poet who won the Pulitzer Prize last week for his New Yorker essays on the war in Gaza, and whom we recently exposed for justifying the abduction of Israelis by Hamas. Incidentally, he also blocked HonestReporting on X.
Hind Khoudari, a self-appointed Gazan journalist who was quoted by various media outlets throughout the Israel-Hamas war, also wrote a moving post about Eslaiah, which prompted us to remind her online fan club that she had collaborated with Hamas, leading to the arrest of Palestinian peace activists.
“Journalist” @Hind_Gaza was outed as a Hamas collaborator whose information led to the arrest of Palestinian peace activists.
Here she is putting lipstick
on a pig
.
No amount of cameras, press vests, or press helmets can disguise who Hassan Eslaiah was.
Behind the… https://t.co/8sh1Qto6iU
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 13, 2025
Khoudari’s reaction was to accuse HonestReporting of responsibility for the deaths of Palestinian journalists, an entirely far-fetched claim with no basis in reality, but repeated by many of her followers on social media.
Motaz Azaiza, another Gazan with an iPhone who became the darling of Western media, called Eslaiah “the most kind human you will ever meet.” Kindness, apparently, does not apply to Jews in Azaiza’s eyes, considering he had posted a video of the kidnapping of Israelis into Gaza and another video replete with a triumphant caption, showing Hamas terrorists inside Israel.
Yeah. Two “kind humans” together.
Reminder: @azaizamotaz9 posted a video of the kidnapping of Israelis into Gaza & another video replete with a triumphant caption, showing Hamas terrorists inside Israel.
No wonder he admired Oct. 7 infiltrator & Hamas operative Hassan Eslaiah. https://t.co/ygkgnk7hBR
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 13, 2025
All of these “journalists” praising their hero, as well as the AP platforming his work, conveniently ignores or denies Eslaiah’s links to terrorism — which comes as little surprise.
Hassan Eslaiah is just the tip of a very big iceberg when it comes to the role of Palestinian journalists in Hamas’ propaganda campaign. And public acknowledgment of this would bring the entire edifice crashing down — something that too many media outlets, as well as Palestinian activists, will try as hard as they can to avoid.
HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Even After Death of Terrorist, the AP Continues to Sell His Photos first appeared on Algemeiner.com.