Holocaust denial is hate speech. One can get away with it in the United States but not in France or Germany where it actually happened and it’s not in the public interest to let it happen again. The same standard is applied over denial of the Armenian genocide. Does anyone outside of Turkey deny the Pontic genocide of Greeks? Nobody has legislated against that because it’s not a problem. Teaching that blacks are inferior is hate speech. Telling women that they should enjoy being r*ped is hate speech. Not hiring women or POC because you feel they are inferior is discrimination. That should be illegal and you can sue, but it’s not criminal.
Critics of the IHRA make the false claim that it criminalizes criticism of Israel. They also claim it infringes their freedom of religion because they can no longer claim that Jews killed Jesus. a) it was the Romans b) the bill doesn’t do that because it’s civil law, not criminal law. It provides a guideline for determining discrimination and is only applicable to public funding. You can still claim that Jews have horns and tails and worship Satan. No one will put you in jail or the looney bin. You just can’t do it in a federally funded classroom or project.
Which brings us to what is considered to be antisemitism wrt to Israel. The IHRA doesn’t condemn comparing Israel to Arabs under Mohammed, Turks, Russians, Chinese or North Koreans. You could pick any number of other analogies, all equally false, risible but not antisemitic. Even the false apartheid label is not proscribed.
To be continued….