Egyptian and Arab legal experts said the US's new global anti-Semitism monitoring law was biased, and illegitimate.
Will the US global anti-Semitism act — which requires greater US monitoring of anti-Semitic acts worldwide — muzzle freedom of expression in the Arab and Muslim world? What is the US law's exact definition of anti- Semitism, and why does it include criticism, or "demonisation", of Israel and Zionism? How can Arab countries stand up to what they see as an "illegitimate" law?

These and other questions have recently provoked enough public anger and heated debate to inspire a large number of legal experts, political analysts, social activists, and media people from around the Arab world to attend a three-day Cairo University conference on the repercussions of the new US global anti- Semitism act.

The conference, which began on Tuesday, is the first to be held on the subject since the October 2004 enactment of the new law and the January 2005 release of the US State Department's first survey on global anti- Semitism. It represents the joint efforts of Cairo University's Centre for Political Research and Studies (CPRS), the non-governmental Arabs Against Discrimination (AAD), and the Egyptian Society of International Law (ESIL).

"The law marks the peak of US dominance over the world," thundered CPRS Chairwoman Nadia Mustafa, who is also a Cairo University political science professor. "We have to find ways to stand up to the US clampdown on freedoms in the Arab and Islamic world."

ESIL Secretary-General Salah Amer, a Cairo University international law professor, called the new legislation "terror of thought".

By passing the new law, warned Palestinian political analyst Salman Abu Setta, "the US is waging an unprecedented, relentless war on our rights, creed and identity."

There was a general consensus among the experts at the conference that the US law was designed to gag critics of Israeli crimes, and underline US global hegemony, at the same time. The law requires the State Department to provide a country-by-country report on anti- Semitic acts and "harassment", and the subsequent governmental response. The report, according to the law, would also include information on governmental efforts to promote "tolerance" and "anti-bias education".

-snip-
Al-Ahram Weekly  | March 10-16, 2005 | Gihan Shahine