The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
In Columbus, Ohio last weekend, a small group of neo-Nazis marched through the Short North neighborhood, sparking outraged responses from city and state leaders, as well as President Joe Biden. Ohio state Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, brought up the incident as he introduced his proposed bill to define antisemitism under Ohio law Wednesday, but his proposal goes back to the wave of demonstrations on university campuses protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Demonstrations related to pro-Gaza protests on college campuses have been marked by disturbing displayed aggression and intolerance,” he argued. “Many of these protests cross the line into antisemitism by targeting Jewish students and expressing hateful rhetoric.”
His legislation incorporates a definition of antisemitism created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in state law to determine whether an individual has committed ‘ethnic intimidation.’ That offense operates as an enhancement to charges like menacing or harassment when the violation is tied to an individual’s “race, color, religion, or national origin.” Johnson’s would measure adds riot and aggravated riot to the list of charges that can be elevated if they’re connected to ethnic intimidation.