Following the release of the Plan to Combat Antisemitism produced by Special Envoy Jillian Segal AO, the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment has again confirmed its endorse­ment of the Inter­na­tion­al Holocaust Remem­brance Alliance Working Defin­i­tion of Antisemitism (the IHRA Defin­i­tion).

In response, several critics in the media and academia have revived the myth that “the author” of the IHRA Defin­i­tion has now disowned it.

In fact, the IHRA Defin­i­tion had many authors. Also, the author referred to by the critics has not repu­di­ated the IHRA Defin­i­tion. Instead, he is critical of the way that some pro­ponents of the IHRA Defin­i­tion distort its meaning in order to overstate its effect. One could make an identical criticism of IHRA’s detract­ors.

For a com­pre­hens­ive and accurate account of the origins of the IHRA Defin­i­tion, read a 2021 open letter from three of the other authors of the IHRA Defin­i­tion.