The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote this week on a resolution that would designate the phrase “Free Palestine” as anti-Semitic.
The measure, introduced by Republican Congressman Gabe Evans of Colorado, comes in the wake of an alleged incident at a college campus in Boulder, Colorado. According to the FBI, a man named Mohammed Sabry Soliman threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel demonstration while shouting “Free Palestine.”
In the resolution, Evans claims that “while shouting ‘Free Palestine,’ an antisemitic slogan that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and Jewish people, Mohammed Sabry Soliman attacked the peaceful demonstrators with homemade Molotov cocktails.”
Although the resolution is non-binding, if passed it could push the federal government—and potentially state governments—to intensify efforts to crack down on protests against Israel, especially on college campuses.
The resolution follows growing efforts to enforce the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which was officially adopted by the U.S. government in 2016. The Trump administration has aggressively promoted this definition, including threats to cut federal funding from universities that do not align with it.
Critics argue the IHRA definition is overly broad and equates many forms of criticism of Israel with antisemitism. If the resolution passes, it could effectively prohibit certain expressions on college campuses, particularly those that receive federal funding.
In December 2023, the House passed a resolution condemning the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The following March, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order classifying that phrase as antisemitic. The order required public universities to adopt the IHRA definition and amend campus speech policies accordingly.
Since then, several universities in Texas have barred students from using the phrase and have threatened disciplinary action against those who do.