Washington: The United States of America today announced its first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism and released over 100 calls to action and over 100 new actions in this regard.
A White House release said the whole-of-society strategy includes new stakeholder commitments. The strategy also calls on Congress to enact legislation that would help counter antisemitism and urges every sector of society to mobilize against this age-old hatred, including state and local governments, civil society, schools and academic institutions, the tech sector, businesses, and, diverse religious communities.
All of the over 100 new actions that Executive Branch agencies have committed to take in order to counter antisemitism will be completed within a year, the release said.
These strategies revolve around raising awareness of antisemitism and its threat to American democracy, protecting Jewish communities, reversing the normalization of antisemitism, and building cross-community solidarity.
The United States has recently experienced an alarming increase in antisemitic incidents, among other acts of hatred. American Jews account for 2.4% of the U.S. population, but they are the victims of 63% of reported religiously motivated hate crimes, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“The strategy reaffirms the United States’ unshakable commitment to the State of Israel’s right to exist, its legitimacy, and its security—and makes clear that when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism,” the release stated.
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Taking note that antisemitism seeks to divide Americans from one another, erodes trust in government and nongovernmental institutions, and undermines democracy, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, established the Interagency Policy Committee on Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Related Forms of Bias and Discrimination, led by the White House Domestic Policy Council and National Security Council in December 2022. As its first order of business, Biden tasked this group with producing the first-ever U.S. national strategy to counter antisemitism in the United States.
The White House said Biden decided to run for President after Neo-Nazis marched from the shadows “spewing the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Europe in the 1930s”, in Charlottesville in 2017. “That is why he has prioritized action to counter antisemitism and hate of all kinds,” the release said.
Some of the other steps that the Biden administration seeks to prioritise are:
- Increase awareness and understanding of antisemitism, including its threat to America, and broaden appreciation of Jewish American heritage. In this regard, in 2024, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will launch the first-ever U.S.-based Holocaust education research centre.
- Improve safety and security for Jewish communities. For this, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, with the Domestic Policy Council (DPC) and National Security Council (NSC), will also launch an interagency effort to understand and eliminate the impediments to reporting hate incidents. Moreover, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will conduct a series of workshops on countering antisemitic and other forms of hate-motivated violence against communities impacted by targeted violence. Department of Justice (DOJ) offices across the country will undertake targeted engagement with community-based groups including youth, faith leaders, cultural leaders, and civil rights organizers from Jewish communities and other communities victimized by hate crimes. Besides, to improve threat information sharing between law enforcement and online platforms, the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center will conduct an annual threat assessment on antisemitic drivers of transnational violent extremism.
- Reverse the normalization of antisemitism and counter antisemitic discrimination. For this the Biden administration also called on Congress to hold social media platforms accountable for spreading hate-fueled violence, including antisemitism; impose much stronger transparency requirements on online platforms; and pass legislation requiring platforms to enable timely and robust public interest research, including on the spread of antisemitism and other forms of hate.
– global bihari bureau
