Last year, the United Nations released a “Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech,” which includes anti-Semitism among the various forms of prejudice it is designed to combat. Such a move is most welcome from an institution that has often been a forum for the promotion of vicious hatred of Jews and the Jewish state. But, argue Emilie Kao and Joel Griffith, its approach is thoroughly wrongheaded:
The “Strategy” encourages states to censor “hate speech,” according to vague and subjective standards. This jeopardizes every person’s freedom to speak and live according to his conscience, including Jews. In reality, the safest space for religious and racial minorities is a free society.
Authoritarians abuse speech restrictions to enforce orthodoxy and maintain control. For example, Pakistan quickly embraced the “Strategy” as a means of combatting “Islamophobia.” But Pakistan’s record as a leader of a previous UN campaign to stop “defamation of religions” does not impress. . . . Recently, the Pakistani press has taken to blaming Jews for the coronavirus, calling it a plot to shut down mosques. What is needed in societies like Pakistan is more counter-speech by and on behalf of Jews, Christians, and all those who hold minority viewpoints.
[Moreover], it’s worth noting that Europe’s Holocaust-denial laws fail to address the roots of hatred, and have not prevented the growth of anti-Semitic parties in Austria, France, and Germany. They may even be counterproductive. Criminal prosecutions give anti-Semites added notoriety and a persecution narrative to exploit.
The UN, Kao and Griffith conclude, would do better to focus on cleaning its own house of anti-Semitism.
Read more on Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/what-united-nations-gets-wrong-about-fighting-anti-semitism-opinion-1534390