What is "targeting" in this context?

This is the very conflation that zionist make in their representation of israel as the expression of all "jewish collectivity." Are zionists therefore in violation of IHRA?

The author of this "working definition," Kenneth Stern, has made plain that the legal formalization of IHRA is an "attack on academic freedom and free speech," and that IHRA should never have been adopted as "campus hate speech code."

Illustrations, not prescriptions as these examples came to be used.

What is the actual purpose of this qualifier? Who decides what kind or class of criticism is similar to another? Leveled by whom?

The organization or the definition?

Why "any other country"? Not all countries are genocidal, settler-colonial, apartheid states + the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid. Israel and the U.S. are acting in ways not replicated by any other states currently, so deserve singling out.

Hints at a claim that you don’t need to be Jewish to be affected by antisemitism. E.g. https://x.com/Almuraqiba/status/1814577232192417842

What does this mean/refer to? Again, significant lack of clarity, concreteness, specificity (a particular problem for anything posing as a definition).

See "Hate with Dylan Rodriguez" for a critique of hate as a concept that is used to hijack anti-racist policies and struggles https://criticalzionismstudies.org/2024/05/21/hate-with-dylan-rodriguez

What might these be?

This is dog-whistle Islamophobia - "religious extremism" as a cause of Jew-hatred is an animating tenet of anti-Muslim racism, particularly since the War on Terror.

While a legitimate example of antisemitism, this example has been used to shield Israel and Zionists from criticism of their influence of these institutions. E.g. On p.3 of the Academic Engagement Network's 2022 Guide and Resource Book (https://academicengagement.org/2022-guide/), the BDS movement is described in these terms: "...the BDS movement's vehement anti-Zionist and anti-Israel rhetoric, campaigns, and programming often end up trafficking in centuries-old conspiracies, tropes, and canards about Jewish power, greed, and undue influence."

Or may not be? How else, then, might it be expressed? There is a lot of hedging here and, for a definition, a real lack of specificity and clarity.

The framing offers another way to put forward the case for the “collective Jew.”

This framing continues the harmful Zionist logic that exceptionalizes the Nazi holocaust of Jews as a single most horrible atrocity while denying the magnitude and significance of other genocides and atrocities. It also resists a structural analysis of colonialism, imperialism, and racism that would illuminate connections between the atrocities committed by Nazis and those perpetrated by Zionists and other colonial powers/regimes.

Note that antisemitism is defined as an apprehension, not a material system or structure of oppression and exploitation. a liberal conceptualization of racism as prejudice, bias, or stereotyping simply.

Up until recently, the legislative Jewish caucus in California had the Israeli flag as its banner image. how is such an image supposed to be read?

Makes self-determination synonymous with statehood which is 1) an absurd proposition and 2) ignores the fact that Zionism denies Palestinian self-determination in any form. It also presumes that describing a state as racist threatens its existence. if that were the case, no modern nation-state would exist.

Which? Lack of specificity

E.g., by censoring inquiry into racist policies implemented by Israel, even though other "liberal" states are subject to such inquiry, ironically by describing such inquiry antisemitic specifically when it is directed toward Israel? in other words, this principle actually requires that a double standard be applied -- in favor of Israel.

While a legitimate example of antisemitism, this accusation has been hurled to discredit investigative accounts of actual war crimes committed by Israel. * E.g. “Israel accused the ICJ of blood libel” (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/29/south-africa-accuses-israel-of-committing-genocide-in-gaza); “Tales of infanticide have stoked hatred of Jews for centuries. They echo still today” (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/06/tales-of-infanticide-have-stoked-hatred-of-jews-for-centuries-they-echo-still-today).

This "non-legally binding working definition" has been pushed as both legally binding and authoritative.

Ignores the fact that Israel is not a democracy.

Refuses to name racism.

Refuses to name racism.