Chip Roy Responds to “Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023”

Roy said the House was unable to debate or amend the bill as it was pushed through.

What is it about These Words that the public is being led to believe – “Antisemitic” & “Antisemitism” – Think Again!

Excerpt below of Rep. Chip Roy speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives. Link HERE for X “formerly Twitter” post

But here’s the thing, yet again today on the floor of the House of Representatives, we had another show vote to make people feel good about themselves by passing a bill that says Anti-Semitism in the title.

That’s what happened, and it was put on the floor by Republican leadership, and it was put on the floor by Republican leadership despite knowing that it was pulled from going through committee. We didn’t have a chance to amend it. We didn’t have a chance to discuss it, to debate it. We didn’t have a hearing on it. It was jammed through to take advantage of this political moment while all of these horrific things are going around the country, Republican leadership wanted to score political points so they moved through legislation without the kind of deliberation debate that is supposed to be carried out by the people in this chamber.

As a result, today a significant number of my Republican colleagues, including myself, voted no. As a result, we will be accused of, I don’t know, being for Anti-Semitic behavior, being accused by our friends and allies of not wanting to support Israel, supporting our Jewish American colleagues and friends, constituents, fellow Americans.

Nothing could be further from the truth, but that’s what will happen, and it will happen because we dare to stand up and say we don’t believe in thought police. We don’t believe that a bill should be brought to the floor of the United States House of Representatives having not gone through committee that has a reference in it to international organizations’ definitions, literally in the statute, and then taking that international organizations’ definition, and then literally in the statute representing and referencing the examples of Anti-Semitic behavior.

Semitic (adj.)

1797, denoting the major language group that includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, etc., distinguished by triliteral verbal roots and vowel inflection; 1826 as “of or pertaining to Semites,” from Medieval Latin Semiticus (source of Spanish semitico, French semitique, German semitisch), from Semita (see Semite).

As a noun, as the name of a linguistic family, from 1813. In non-linguistic use, it is perhaps directly from German semitisch. In recent use often with the specific sense “Jewish,” but not historically so delimited.

Semite (n.)

1847, “a Jew, Arab, Assyrian, or Aramaean” (an apparently isolated use from 1797 refers to the Semitic language group), back-formation from Semitic or else from French Sémite (1845), from Modern Latin Semita, from Late Latin Sem, Greek Sēm “Shem,” one of the three sons of Noah (Genesis x.21-30), regarded as the ancestor of the Semites in Bible-based anthropology, from Hebrew Shem. In this modern sense it is said to have been introduced by German historian August Schlözer in 1781.

Right-wing critics slam antisemitism bill passed by House

Because the bill is so imprecise in its language, the threat to Freedom of Speech could not be greater.  “Antisemitism” is not defined in the bill. What is or is not “antisemitism” is wholly based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition. That is a very expansive definition, whose rigorous application could outlaw publicly expressing Christian dogma, public readings of  certain Bible verses, and any public criticism of Israel, a foreign nation receiving billions of tax payer dollars. 

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