(A) In investigating whether there has been a violation of law, the City intends that the definitions of bias-motivated crime and antisemitism, as hereinafter stated, be considered for purposes of determining whether the alleged violation was motivated by an intent to commit a bias-motivated crime.
(B) Nothing in this section shall be construed to diminish or infringe on any right protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, or the State of Florida’s Constitution, or to conflict with federal or state discrimination laws.
(C) Definitions.
(1) ADVANCED AGE shall mean that the victim is at least 65 years of age.
(2) ANTISEMITISM shall mean a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions, and toward Jewish religious facilities. Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include but are not limited to:
(a) Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews, often in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion;
(b) Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective, especially, but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government, or other societal institutions;
(c) Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, the State of Israel (“Israel”), or even for acts committed by non-Jews;
(d) Accusing the Jews as a people or the State of Israel (“Israel”) of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust;
(e) Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations;
(f) Seeking to delegitimize Israel by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination and denying Israel the right to exist.
(D) Criticism of Israel similar to that levied against any other country should not be regarded as antisemitic, and in no event shall anything in this definition or in any of the foregoing examples be construed to conflict with the United States Constitution, the Florida Constitution, or federal or state law.
(Ord. O-2023-01, passed 1-18-23)