Trump Signs Executive Order To ‘Combat Anti-Semitism’

Jan. 31—President Trump Jan. 29 signed an executive order on anti-Semitism, which states, “It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

The order refers specifically to “civil-rights violations related to or arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism.” These protests about the actions of the state of Israel, which included the participation of many Jewish students, were not focused on Jews themselves or anti-Semitism. The redefinition of anti-Semitism to be about the state of Israel rather than Judaism is dangerous.

According to Trump’s 2019 EO 13899 (now reinstated by the present order), Title VI enforcement (of discrimination in educational institutions) must consider “the non-legally binding working definition of anti-Semitism adopted on May 26, 2016, by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)” as well as “the ‘Contemporary Examples of Anti-Semitism’ identified by the IHRA.” Among those examples are attacks on Israel, rather than Jews per se. For example, the IHRA considers “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” anti-Semitic.

A fact sheet on Trump’s executive order to “Combat Anti-Semitism” says, under the heading “Deport Hamas Sympathizers and Revoke Student Visas”:

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

In addition to the obvious mischaracterization of all participants in protests against Israel’s conduct in Gaza as “Hamas sympathizers,” the threat to revoke visas based on their political beliefs hardly comports with the executive order Trump signed on his first day in office stating, “It is the policy of the United States to secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech."