LONDON: A legal challenge has been launched against the UK government over its use of a contested definition of antisemitism. It came after the government announced plans to employ the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism to tackle a claimed rise of anti-Jewish incidents in British schools. The definition has long faced criticism for what critics describe as its conflation of anti-Israel beliefs with antisemitism. The legal challenge in the UK was launched by the Good Law Project. The organization’s executive director, Jolyon Maugham, said: “It is not merely important to protect the space to advance vigorous criticisms of Israel’s appalling actions — we think it is necessary in a moral society.” In a press release, the NGO warned that the government’s “sweeping, broad definition” would “restrict teachers’ and students’ freedom to express solidarity with Palestine.” The statement added: “The IHRA definition has been widely criticised by those opposing Israel’s war crimes, including pro-Palestinian Jewish groups, like Na’amod, because it conflates legitimate criticism of the state of Israel with antisemitism. “That definition lists eleven examples of ‘antisemitism,’ some of which include making criticisms of the state of Israel.” The UK government’s announcement of its plans followed the release of the Bell review, an independent probe into antisemitism in British schools conducted by Sir David Bell, the former chief inspector of Ofsted, the national education regulator. By accepting the report’s recommendations in full, the government is ignoring “sweeping restrictions on free speech and criticisms of the report’s methodology,” the Good Law Project added. “The report found an increase in ‘anti-Israel’ sentiment, not ‘anti-Jewish’ attitudes. Even then, the statistics relied on a small sample size of pupils from a tiny age range. The report itself admits that ‘a low sample size of 92 students who identify as Jewish should be treated with caution’,” it said. The report’s recommendations also separated anti-Jewish hatred from broad measures that already exist at a national level to tackle racism and bullying in schools, the organization added. It highlighted criticism by the National Education Union that the government risked “creating a hierarchy of racism” by adopting the recommendations.