Last spring, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Northeastern University circulated a petition calling for the university’s Student Government Association (SGA) to drop its adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

The IHRA definition states that antisemitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

In other words, according to the IHRA, antisemitism is general hostility towards Jews, Jewishness, and its manifestations.

SJP’s petition was by no means surprising: SJP is an anti-Israel group with a history of glorifying terrorism against Jews. SJP strives to strike down the IHRA definition — and any other serious effort to combat antisemitism, for that matter — because their actions clearly violate the IHRA definition.

Just recently, for example, they promoted an event featuring Mohammed El-Kurd, an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish extremist, with a long history of praising and promoting acts of terror against Israeli civilians. El-Kurd has denounced Israel’s right to exist and defend itself from terrorism; denied the Jewish connection to the land of Israel;  and engaged in denial of Judaism’s ancient temples in Jerusalem.

But what is most surprising — and horrifying — about the SJP’s recent move, is that campus groups such as Northeastern Students Against Institutional Discrimination (NUSAID), the Roosevelt Institute, Sunrise NEU, the Northeastern Progressive Student Alliance (PSA),  and the Northeastern Chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) also signed on to SJP’s petition.

If members of these groups learned about what Israel is really like, they would realize that Israel aligns with their ideals.

The modern state of Israel cherishes and protects women’s rights and LGBT+ rights. In Israel, the LGBT+ community lives proudly. Israelis elected a female prime minister, Golda Meir, back in 1969. Israel boasts the world’s highest percentage of vegans, and pioneered many ways to save water that it shares with the rest of the world, promoting conversation and respect for the environment.

Israel has had kibbutzim — collectivist communities — for decades, and socialist leadership in its governance. Israel has a multi-ethnic, pluralistic democracy and a multilingual free press. Israel has embraced peace by signing peace treaties and normalization agreements with Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Morocco.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip, evacuating all Israeli settlers and Israeli soldiers. Unfortunately, that act of peace was met with violence when Hamas, a terrorist group, claimed the strip for itself, with the support of the Palestinian people.

Israel has offered the Palestinian leadership a state on no less than five separate occasions, as recently as 2008. The overwhelming majority of Israelis seek peace and justice for Palestinians. When a rare act of terrorism is carried out by an Israeli, it is fully condemned by the government. In contrast, the Palestinian government literally pays terrorists, and the families of terrorists, who murder Israeli schoolchildren.

There is nothing in the IHRA definition that is anti-Palestinian or anti-peace.  The IHRA definition does not preclude criticism of specific Israeli policies — it only prevents someone from denying Israel’s right to exist, or holding Israel to a different standard of any other country. And that’s exactly what SJP wants to do.

The idea of Zionism, or Jewish return to the land of Israel, is as old as the Jewish people themselves. Throughout centuries in the diaspora, Jews have never stopped loving Israel and wanting to return. The Jewish people feel as strong a connection to our homeland as the Cherokee, the French, the Ukrainians, the Khmer, the Zulu, or the Maori feel to theirs.

To vilify the Jewish feeling of connection to our homeland while not applying similar critiques to other peoples is a blatant double standard. The Jewish people are indigenous to the land of Israel according to the UN’s criteria for indigeneity. Our religion, culture, and calendar revolve around it.

Progressive student groups at Northeastern should endorse the IHRA definition, accept the necessity of calling out antisemitism, and thereby truly work towards peace between Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

Matthew Blicher is a CAMERA Fellow, and a student at Northeastern University.