: Trefnydd, last
Friday was holocaust Memorial Day, and
it was my honour to be able to welcome to the Senedd last week,
along with many other colleagues, Hedi Argent, who of course is a
holocaust survivor, to the
Senedd, who shared her experiences with us. As you may well be
aware, the Combat Antisemitism Movement's 2022 International
holocaust Remembrance
Alliance working definition report has been published, and it
looked at 1,116 entities, including 39 countries and 464 regional
states and local government bodies. Here in the UK, it recorded
that there were 150 reports of antisemitic incidents affecting
Jewish students, academics, university staff and student bodies
across the UK during 2021 and 2022. So, it's very alarming,
Trefnydd, that there are universities here in Wales that are yet
to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. Minister,
I'd be very grateful for a statement from the Welsh Government
Minister responsible for education, to make it absolutely and
abundantly clear that no university or other place of education
in Wales should receive any further Welsh Government funding, any
taxpayer funding whatsoever, unless they adopt the IHRA working
definition. Will you confirm that a statement will be
forthcoming?
(Minister for Rural
Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd): Thank you. I'm sure
many of us commemorated holocaust Memorial Day. I
was very fortunate to have the Minister for Social Justice in my
constituency, and we attended an event together. On the point you
raised, the Welsh Government has adopted the definition of IHRA
as a working definition, as you're aware, and it is a matter for
each university to then adopt it. I know that the Minister for
Education and the Welsh Language has had those discussions with
them.
