Key Definitions

To ensure clarity and consistency throughout this report, we define key terms used in our analysis:

Antisemitism

In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) established a working definition of antisemitism entailing as follows: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities" (IHRA, 2016). Significantly, this definition is increasingly being adopted at universities and higher education institutions to determine discrimination against Jewish students (Alonso, 2025). However, this IHRA definition and its usage by institutions signals several problematic turns as the definitions' vague wording combined with its listed potential examples of antisemitism can be used to prohibit criticism of the state of Israel (Deckers & Coulter, 2022, p. 735). Deckers and Coulter (2022) provide that the IHRA examples of potential antisemitism are often used by organizations who seek to enforce the definition as "unequivocal instances of antisemitism" (p. 736). The listed examples included in the definition were originally meant to provide illustrations of instances which may or may not be antisemitic, however many institutions collapse the nuance of these examples as direct embodiment of antisemitism (Deckers & Coulter 2022). They argue that this usage of the IHRA's listed examples works to shut down criticism of Israel and equates any such criticism with antisemitism.

Divestment

The act of "withdrawing investments from companies, institutions, or entities that are seen as complicit in Israel's actions against Palestinians". This strategy aims to exert economic pressure on Israel and its supporters, encouraging them to comply with international law and end what the BDS (Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions) movement perceives as human rights violations and settler colonialism" (BDS movement, n.d.).

Encampment

A camp that serves as a physical base for protest where individuals shed light on a range of sociopolitical issues (Feigenbaum, 2015). Encampments were organized across universities in the United States to facilitate student-led protests and highlight atrocities in Palestine through chants, teach-ins, and demonstrations of community solidarity.

First Amendment

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. It protects fundamental rights like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government (U.S. Const. amend. I).

Genocide

Genocide is defined by "acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group such as: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" (United Nations, n.d.).

Islamophobia

Islamophobia is a "fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation of Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the online and offline world" (United Nations, n.d.).

Time, Place, and Manner Restrictions

These restrictions are "limitations imposed by the government on expressive activity… such as imposing limits on the noise level of speech, capping the number of protesters who may occupy a given forum, [and] barring early-morning or late-evening demonstrations" (The Free Speech Center, 2024).

Zionism

Zionism is a "nationalist, political, and ideological movement for the establishment and sustaining of statehood or a homeland of Jewish people" reinforced through the constant militarization, apartheid, and dispossession and often misconstrued with antisemitism, prejudice and hate towards Jews (Antisemitism, 2024; White, 2016).