How the ADL’s Israel Advocacy Undermines Its Civil Rights Work
This report will appear in our Spring 2021 issue. Subscribe now to get a copy in your mailbox.
IN THE SUMMER OF 2016, a handful of senior Anti-Defamation League (ADL) staff members and executives in New York and Washington, DC joined a conference call to discuss a sensitive topic: the organization’s position on what would come to be known as the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. The bill would amend federal civil rights law to employ a controversial definition of antisemitism, which included “delegitimiz[ing]” Israel, blaming Israel for “all . . . political tensions,” and, in the case of international organizations, “focusing on Israel only for peace or human rights investigations.” Those guilty of antisemitism under this definition could be investigated by the Department of Education for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.