REJECT THE ADL

 

 

 

 

Under the guise of civil rights advocacy, the Anti-Defamation League actually uses its power to harm movements
— and people —
working for justice for all.

 

 

 

The ADL’s dangerous approach towards antisemitism

Misdefining antisemitism

For years, the ADL has used its credibility as a civil rights organization to silence critics of the Israeli state, pushing the dangerous and false IHRA definition of antisemitism. This definition labels anyone opposed to the Israeli government’s oppression of Palestinians as antisemitic, making it harder to identify actual instances of antisemitism. The ADL has spent millions of dollars pushing to turn this definition into laws that would classify criticism of Israel as a hate crime against Jews.

Repressing free speech

The ADL has consistently targeted advocates for Palestinian human rights in a concerted and coordinated campaign to repress any speech that criticizes Israel’s current war on Gaza or its policy of oppression of Palestinians.

Increasingly losing legitimacy as a resource

In June 2025, the largest union in the U.S., the National Education Association, overwhelmingly voted to cut all ties with the ADL in recognition of its consistent bias and unreliability.

Previously, the ADL’s consistent bias led Wikipedia editors to vote in June 2024 that the ADL could not be trusted as a reliable source on issues of antisemitism or Israel’s war on Gaza. Earlier that month, Jewish Currents reported that the ADL is “unable to speak meaningfully to the prevalence or impact of antisemitism in the US” after the outlet conducted a detailed audit of the ADL's data on antisemitic incidents.

More and more, our communities are recognizing that the ADL is an anti-Palestinian, pro-Israel lobbying group pretending to be a civil rights organization.

Take Action

Tell the NEA: Get the biased, pro-genocide ADL out of our schools.

Write to TIME magazine: Stop whitewashing the ADL’s authoritarianism.

Tell your school board: Reject the ADL.

History of Islamophobic, racist, anti-Palestinian advocacy

Support for racist, militarized policing

The ADL runs programs to train police in the U.S. in militarized policing techniques that target low-income, Black communities, and communities of color — strategies learned from the Israeli army’s brutalization of Palestinians.

Persistent anti-Arab, anti-Muslim racism

The ADL has consistently targeted Arab-led organizations and portrayed advocacy for Palestinian rights as hateful, and supports Islamophobic federal programs that expand surveillance of Muslim communities.

Bullying and suppressing anti-racist and social justice organizing

After the 2017 white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, VA, the ADL released a “primer” for law enforcement to help them target anti-racist protestors. Over the years, the ADL has also publicly attacked, among others, the Movement for Black Lives, the Women’s March, ACT UP, Black organizing dating back to the Civil Rights era, and many grassroots social justice coalitions.

Spying on activists and social justice movements

In July 2024, news broke that the ADL had been surveilling a progressive anti-racist climate activist. This follows a long history of the ADL spying on individuals and movements engaged in social justice work — including the NAACP, and major organizations in the climate, labor, anti-South African apartheid, farm worker, and college student movements.

For even more information on the ADL’s abuses of its civil rights mission, please see this extensive historical primer from our partners at #DropTheADL.