US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has decided to form a new process by which the US can declare organizations and groups to be antisemitic, three people close to the issue have confirmed, although they noted that he may hold off on making an announcement, Politico has reported.No specific organizations were named by those in the know, however, in October, the American political news site reported that Pompeo was weighing whether to label Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam as antisemitic because of their alleged support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Various State Department staffers and lawmakers objected strongly to the proposal, claiming it could raise concerns about freedom of speech, and even lead to legal entanglements. Last year, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, a definition on which the process is expected to rely as it lists anti-Zionism as an example of antisemitism. The BDS movement, under this framework, can therefore be considered antisemitic.
Oxfam representatives say their organization does not support the movement, while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say they do not take a position on it, according to Politico. However, others argue that while the three groups do not explicitly back the movement, they have released reports critical of Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank.A report into the work of Amnesty International by David Collier, commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch and published last year, claimed the NGO is strongly biased against the Jewish state and other actors, such as India, while ignoring human rights violations by Pakistan.“Targets are not chosen for their actions, but rather for their identity,” wrote Collier.After monitoring dozens of social media accounts maintained by the NGO and people who work for it, Collier concluded that the amount of hatred Israel received was beyond any proportion, and had reached a level that is antisemitic.None of the organizations receive significant funding, if any, from the US government. But under Pompeo's process, the government would make it clear that they did not support the organizations and would urge other governments not to give them funding.Asked for a statement by Politico on Wednesday, a State Department spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on purportedly leaked communications.”Sarah Ben-Nun and Hagay Hacohen contributed to this report.