PASSAIC, N.J. (PIX11) — When is criticism of Israel and its government's actions and policies considered antisemitic?

That's a question being debated in the New Jersey state legislature as measures meant to define antisemitism start making their way through the legislative process.

While both supporters and opponents of the new legislation say they oppose all forms of hate, the process of getting a definition of antisemitism codified into state law shows that not everyone agrees about what that definition is.

There are bills on the issue in the New Jersey State Senate and the State Assembly. In the lower house, the sponsor is Assemblyman Gary Schaer, a Democrat who represents parts of Passaic and Bergen Counties.

"Hatred against Jews, antisemitism, is at an all time high," Schaer said in an interview. "We need to understand what it is. By defining, we can understand."

Schaer said that his bill defines antisemitism as expressions of hatred toward Jewish people, as described by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA.

The IHRA definition, according to its website, "might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity."

"However," the IHRA description adds, "criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic."

Schaer said that that means that criticism of Israel is unrestricted. 

“You can say whatever awful thing you'd like to say now as you could in the future,” he said. “But the importance of the bill is to establish a level playing field so that everyone understands what it is.”

Schaer pointed out that similar legislation has been adopted in 36 states and more than 40 countries. 

It is not a measure that allows full criticism, said Stephen Shalom, an emeritus political science professor at William Paterson University and leader of the North Jersey chapter of Jewish Voices for Peace.

“I care about free speech,” said Shalom, who was among a few dozen people who were at the statehouse in Trenton on Monday to oppose the antisemitism measure in the state senate.

Two bills are pending there, which are partnered with Schaer’s bill in the lower house. 

Opponents of the bills say that the proposed legislation criticizes acts that the Israeli government is carrying out in the war in Gaza, a form of antisemitism, even if the criticism is coming from Jewish organizations like Shalom's. 

“All those things might become illegal,” he said, describing messages of dissent against attacks on Gaza by the Israeli government. “No free society does that.”

His organization is part of a wider coalition of groups that support a definition of antisemitism that’s based on criteria devised by scholars of Jewish history, culture and Middle Eastern affairs. That definition, called The Jerusalem Declaration, Shalom said, allows for dissent and open criticism of Israeli policies and actions. 

The Monday state senate hearing on the antisemitism measure was canceled minutes before it was scheduled to occur. It has not been rescheduled and is not expected to be placed on the legislative calendar until next month at the earliest.