Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune appears on i24 News. Photo: Screenshot.

An effort at University College London to rescind the leading definition of antisemitism threatens to clear the way for bigotry and bias against Jewish students on campus, said Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune during an interview with i24 News on Wednesday. 

The UCL Academic Board has called on the school to use a “more precise definition of antisemitism” than the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition, which it adopted in 2019, as have governments and educational institutions worldwide.

Efune called it “the definitive definition today,” and said that “anyone who is looking to undermine it inherently is looking to undermine Jewish concerns and Jewish interests.”

“Discrimination against the Jew today, in many cases, has been replaced by discrimination against the Jewish state,” he said. “What the IHRA definition does is it makes clear that certain forms of discrimination and bigotry, where they are directed against people of Israeli origin, or the concept of Zionism in general — do fit the criteria of antisemitism, bias, and bigotry against Jewish people.”

In a Feb. 9 blog post, UCL scholar of Hebrew and Jewish studies Lars Fischer resigned from his position over the Academic Board’s recommendation and told colleagues that they were “going to hell.” The UCL Jewish Society and the Union of Jewish Students also spoke out against the Board.

“If you really want to help marginalized and vulnerable Jewish students on college campuses around the world, you need to recognize what the challenge they’re up against is,” said Efune. “And in most cases it’s discrimination against them on the basis of their association with the world’s only Jewish state.”

Watch Efune’s i24 News appearance below: