New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday signed an executive order that adopts the working definition of antisemitism established by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as the state’s legal standard, i24NEWS reported.
According to the text of the order, “Jewish people continue to be a targeted minority in the United States and New Mexico, for instance, data shows that Jews are consistently the most likely of all religious groups to be victimized by incidents of hate.”
The IHRA’s working definition adopted in 2016 will be used to “determine contemporary manifestations of antisemitism and includes useful examples of discriminatory anti-Israel acts that can cross the line into antisemitism,” the document stated.
If "a violation of law occurs" all state agencies in New Mexico "will consider IHRA when making an assessment as to whether the discrimination was motivated by antisemitic intent."
The IHRA working definition offers a comprehensive description of antisemitism in its various forms, including hatred and discrimination against Jews, Holocaust denial and, sometimes controversially, the way antisemitism relates to the ways criticism of Israel is expressed.
More than half the states in the US have adopted or endorsed the IHRA definition, plus the District of Columbia, either as legislation or as an educational standard.
The IHRA definition of antisemitism has also been adopted by a host of countries, including Albania, Australia, Canada, Germany, Britain, Austria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, France, Cyprus and Argentina.