Reps. Mike Lawler, a Republican, and Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, slammed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for voting against the antisemitism legislation they introduced.
The lawmakers talked Wednesday about their bill, the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023, with CNN’s Jake Tapper after Ms. Greene, Georgia Republican, had posted on X that she wouldn’t support it.
“So, she doesn’t want to be helping us protect communities against antisemitism. We’re not surprised,” said Mr. Moskowitz, Florida Democrat.
Ms. Greene posted Wednesday that “antisemitism is wrong” but she wouldn’t vote for the legislation because the language “could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews.”
“We’re not interested in messing with the Gospel, nor does this language do that, and I don’t think the Jewish community is worried right now what the ‘Jew laser lady’ has to say. I mean, that’s not who we want on our side,” Mr. Moskowitz said, referring to a controversy involving Ms. Greene.
Mr. Lawler, New York Republican, called Ms. Greene’s comments “absurd.”
“To somehow use that to say that this bill now is going to [persecute] Christians. is absurd on its face. It’s inflammatory, and it’s irrational,” he said.
He said the main issue is students on college campuses “hiding behind the conflict between Israel and Hamas and somehow spewing antisemitism and it’s being accepted by these universities.”
The bill would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. The group defines antisemitism as a “certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.”
It passed the House 320-91, with 21 Republicans and 70 Democrats voting against it. Some took issue with the 11 “contemporary examples” in the IHRA definition, which gives examples of antisemitism in public.
Pro-Palestinian groups take issue with one example: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
Other examples include “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” and “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”