Dominican Republic Extends the IHRA Framework in Latin America

President Luis Abinader announced that the Dominican Republic will formally adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. The decision makes it the seventh Latin American nation to embrace the framework; Abinader also announced the country’s first museum dedicated to Jewish history and heritage.

• The Dominican Republic joins Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Uruguay in adopting the IHRA framework.
• Abinader instructed the Foreign Ministry to formalize the decision and described antisemitism as a threat to democratic coexistence.
• The announcement came at a regional forum attended by more than 70 leaders from 19 countries, including nearly 50 legislators.

The adoption expands a common policy vocabulary for identifying anti-Jewish hatred across Latin America, including manifestations tied to attacks on Jewish self-determination. The regional forum and U.S. diplomatic participation indicate that IHRA adoption is developing as a coordinated intergovernmental track rather than a series of isolated declarations.

Providence voters will decide a binding November referendum directing the city away from investments connected to countries accused of genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing or illegal occupation. The text does not name Israel, but the campaign was led by Providence for Palestine and is being presented by both sides as a test of the BDS movement.

• Providence would be the largest U.S. municipality to put an Israel-linked divestment proposal before voters.
• The initiative would rely on findings by bodies including the United Nations and International Court of Justice to determine which countries trigger divestment.
• The measure is binding and could encounter Rhode Island’s existing restrictions on government contractors that boycott Israel.

The campaign tests whether BDS organizers can win local mandates by replacing explicit references to Israel with criteria that depend on international institutions already hostile to the Jewish state. A victory would provide a replicable drafting model for municipal campaigns in jurisdictions where direct anti-Israel language is politically or legally vulnerable.

A coalition calling itself Rabbis for Block the Bombs is recruiting Jewish clergy to lobby for H.R. 3565, which would block seven categories of offensive weapons for Israel. The campaign launched publicly on August 23 with 92 signatories and lists support from organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.

• The coalition supports the Block the Bombs Act, H.R. 3565, covering munitions including JDAMs, SPICE assemblies and artillery ammunition.
• Its public materials list Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow and allied anti-Israel groups as supporters.
• The effort uses Jewish clerical identity to press Congress for a partial arms embargo on Israel.

The coalition is an organizational attempt to give an arms-embargo campaign a Jewish religious credential while relying on the established anti-Israel activist network for support. Its significance will turn on whether the clergy list gives H.R. 3565 access to lawmakers beyond the bill’s existing anti-Israel constituency.