For a time, it seemed like 2023 could be the year the Georgia legislature passed legislation defining antisemitism in state law, but known fault lines prevented the effort from crossing the finish line.
“This session has ended and this fight continues … into the next,” bill sponsor Marietta Republican John Carson said in a tweet. “We made great progress with this bill this year. Next year we will make it win!”
Lawmakers banded together in February in support of the state’s Jewish population after a series of strange and hateful anti-Semitic leaflets surfaced in the Jewish neighborhoods of the greater Atlanta area. Similar leaflets have since shaken residents in other parts of the state.
An ADL report released in January found that anti-Semitic attitudes “are widespread and likely to increase” in the United States.
Researchers found that 85% of Americans agree with at least one anti-Jewish trope, up from 61% in 2019. They found that 20% believe six or more anti-Jewish tropes, nearly double the 11% figure in 2019.
Carson’s House Bill 30, which passed the House but tangled in the Senate, would have codified a definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and the bill required state agencies to use that definition as evidence of discriminatory intent in things to be used as discrimination in the home or workplace and under the state’s Hate Crimes Act of 2020.
Georgia’s hate crime law covers acts targeting someone because of the victim’s religion, but proponents argued the definition would extend the law’s reach to attacks using symbols such as a swastika.
But parts of the definition didn’t sit well with some lawmakers, including Acworth Republican Senator Ed Setzler. The alliance contains examples of criticism of Israel that, in its opinion, degenerates into anti-Semitism, which some Setzler gives cause for concern. In particular, the nation’s treatment of the Palestinians has drawn criticism from groups such as Amnesty International.
Rep. Esther Panitch, a Sandy Springs Democrat, is advocating a bill that would expand the state’s hate crimes law to include anti-Semitism. Panitch is the only Jewish legislature in Georgia. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
Free speech advocates say that monitoring the speech in relation to a matter of international politics amounts to suppressing free speech. These concerns led to a tense exchange in the just-ended legislature and ultimately caused the bill to stall this year.
“If you believe that the State of Israel is a racist endeavor, if you genuinely believe that and express that, then you have satisfied the element of anti-Semitism,” said Setzler at a committee meeting.
Rep. Esther Panitch, a co-sponsor of the Sandy Springs Democrats, said the point is moot unless the person commits an underlying crime.
“No, because there must first be an unlawful act or unlawful discrimination before we even look,” said Panitch, the only currently serving Jewish member of the state legislature and recipient of anti-Semitic leaflets.
“But the element or the presence of anti-Semitism does exist,” said Setzler. “Well, the hate crime doesn’t happen unless there’s a crime.”
“So if this gentleman attacked me because I’m Jewish, because he’s mad about what happened to his family at the time, and takes it out on me because I’m Jewish, that’s a hate crime,” Panitch said.
“Right, but we don’t discuss hate crimes,” said Setzler. “What we are discussing today is antisemitism, the element of discrimination that is antisemitism exists. If this gentleman says in black and white, “The existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” if he sincerely believes that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor, he has met the definition of anti-Semitism, right? He didn’t commit a hate crime because he didn’t commit a crime. But the definition of anti-Semitism was met by his expressing that belief.”
“It wouldn’t show up,” Panitch said.
Acworth Republican Senator Ed Setzler speaks in the House of Representatives chamber in March 2021. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Setzler expressed his unease about a law designating someone for political speech as an anti-Semite and proposed an amendment that removes the coalition’s examples and changes his definition of anti-Semitism from “a particular perception of Jews” to “a negative perception of Jews.” “ rephrased.
The committee passed Setzler’s amendment, which Carson and Panitch did not support.
Carson said the change would throw Georgia out of step with other entities, including at least six other states and federal agencies like the US State Department, that use the alliance definition. Panitch said the wording change ignores that Jews often face hatred based on stereotypes that cannot be described as negative, such as B. the belief that they are rich and powerful.
The law was deadlocked and seemed doomed until it was grafted into House Bill 144, another bill originally dealing with rights for adults with legal guardians, without Setzler’s amendment.
This bill made it through another committee but never received a vote in the Senate before the clock expired at this year’s session.
Panitch swore the fight would continue.
“If you think I won’t continue fighting for the Jewish community, you haven’t met me,” she said in a tweet. “And those who fought against this law, don’t you dare tell me how sorry you are for anti-Semitism. You are the problem.”
The bill will be in play when the legislature resumes next January, and supporters like Aaron Gaan are hoping it will pass.
Gaan said he faced such extreme anti-Semitic bullying at his Fulton County school that he considered ending his life. The young man said he faced constant hateful harassment and vandalism, but the school administration did nothing for over a year.
“The graffiti would appear almost weekly and it would get so bad that I would consider suicide,” Gaan said. “I was only 13 at the time and have been in therapy ever since. If there was a definition, there would have been no doubt whether the graffiti I found was anti-Semitic or not. It could have ended in a day, not 18 months.”
Critics say they hope any legislation defining antisemitism omits language related to criticism of Israel.
“Let’s be very clear, anti-Semitism is a very real problem,” Murtaza Khwaja, director of the Georgia section of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said at a recent news conference. “It deserves our attention and it deserves to be addressed. However (House Bill 144) is not the way to do this. What this bill does is conflate anti-Semitism with criticism of the State of Israel.”
