Matt Walsh Delivers Stern Rebuke to House Antisemitism Bill

Original article here

Matt Walsh, the hirsute Daily Wire pundit behind the provocative documentary film What Is a Woman?, has delivered his typically candid and plainspoken response to a new bill passed by the U.S. House Representatives which seeks to curtail expressions of purported antisemitism.

On Wednesday, the House passed the bill “House Resolution 6090 — the Antisemitism Awareness Act.,” responding to a new wave of anti-Israel campus activism.

This resolution, introduced by republican David Kustoff (R-TN) and Mike Lawler (R-NY), delineates an expansive and controversial definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as the official definition of antisemitism for the purposes of the United States government.

Walsh was less than impressed by the new law and took to social media to lament its purported insanity.

“The full list of items qualifying as antisemitism, according to the IHRA is provided below in its own words: The vast majority of Republicans just voted for a bill to criminalize criticisms of the Israeli government,” Walsh wrote on X. “If the bill passes you will be guilty of hate speech if you ‘apply double standards’ to the government of Israel or accuse it of genocide. This is honestly one of the most insane pieces of legislation I’ve ever seen.”

The vast majority of Republicans just voted for a bill to criminalize criticisms of the Israeli government. If the bill passes you will be guilty of hate speech if you “apply double standards” to the government of Israel or accuse it of genocide. This is honestly one of the most… https://t.co/5SPRT0I0jk pic.twitter.com/2k6n9A3hiY

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) May 1, 2024

•Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
•Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
•Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
•Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust
•Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
•Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
•Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
•Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
•Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
•Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
•Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

The bill also attracted the derision of Walsh’s former Daily Wire colleague Candace Owens, who quoted Walsh’s post to highlight her own criticisms of the IHRA’s “classic antisemitism” stipulation.

“When are Christians going to wake up? First professing that “Christ is King” during Easter week is antisemitic. Now, the true story of Christ’s death is deemed antisemitic. Christians are being told that acknowledging our doctrine or history is a form of antisemitism,” Owens shared.

When are Christians going to wake up? First professing that “Christ is King” during Easter week is antisemitic. Now, the true story of Christ’s death is deemed antisemitic.
Christians are being told that acknowledging our doctrine or history is a form of antisemitism. https://t.co/fdOaH4ITdb

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 1, 2024