It’s only Antisemitic when “their land” is defined “from the river to the sea.” There are 8 million people who are not Palestinians living there for generations now. Some families for centuries.
Of course they have a right to peaceful existence and security on the land where they live.
It is an emancipatory slogan that calls for an end to apartheid and for equal rights.
Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine-Israel program at the Arab Center Washington D.C., has written extensively about the meaning of the slogan before and since Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7, which led to Israel’s current bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
“It’s an expression of Palestinian nationalism and it’s an expression of a demand for Palestinian freedom or self-determination,” said Waxman. “I think Palestinian self-determination need not come at the expense of Jewish self-determination. Nor do I think Palestinian freedom has to be considered a threat to Jewish rights.”
Simply put, the majority of Palestinians who use this phrase do so because they believe that, in 10 short words, it sums up their personal ties, their national rights and their vision for the land they call Palestine. And while attempts to police the slogan’s use may come from a place of genuine concern, there is a risk that tarring the slogan as antisemitic – and therefore beyond the pale – taps into a longer history of attempts to silence Palestinian voices.
The use of the phrase “from the river to the sea” has come under particular scrutiny in the last three months. When Palestinians, or anyone on the left, has used the phrase to demand a free Palestine—as in the popular chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”—those on the right have disingenuously argued that it is calling for the death of all Jewish people in Israel.
In 2021, the Palestinian-American writer Yousef Munayyer argued that those who saw genocidal ambition in the phrase, or indeed an unambiguous desire for the destruction of Israel, did so due to their own Islamophobia.
It was instead, he argued, merely a way to express a desire for a state in which “Palestinians can live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominated by others nor dominating them”.
Preventing any possibility of a Palestinian state has always been Israel’s policy, one that the settlement building in the Occupied Territories is meant to ensure. This policy has been intensified under Benjamin Netanyahu, who in January 2024 publicly vowed to resist any attempt to create a Palestinian state and to maintain Israeli control from the river to the sea.
It is often maintained that the slogan ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ expresses a genocidal and antisemitic intention. But this is generally not the case. On the contrary, the slogan has historically been used to articulate a wide variety of political strategies for Palestinian liberation
Denying such demands seems as self-evident to most Israeli Jews as the air they breathe. It is this denial that has led to the dehumanization of Palestinians and has culminated in the genocidal mood that is prevailing in Israeli Jewish society today and in the assault taking place now in Gaza. This should be viewed as the real problem and not the legitimate chant of ‘from the river to the sea: Palestine will be free’.
There’s no anti-semetism in those words, Palestinians include Muslims and Jews who lived there for centuries. The problem is europeans persecuted immigrants who were forced upon Palestinians. True Justice would be to divide Germany (biggest perpetrator) into two parts to give rise of Jewish state. Why would Palestinians take the brunt of Europe’s crime?
I thought one of the biggest lessons of this whole thing was trying to create a Jewish state (or anything similar) on top of a place where people already live is going to create conflict with the people that already live there.
Also telling Jews to go back to Germany after WWII. “War is totally over guys, time to go back to Germany.” That’s gonna sound like a childish prank.
Your logic is so cracked I don’t know where to begin. If “Europeans” are to blame for the oppression of Palestinians, then shouldn’t they be responsible for making a Palestinian state in Europe? That is a bonkers take. Please take a little time to think through the things you post.
In defence of the Palestinians, they did not get to choose the ethnicity of their colonisers. And if anything, Jews have been historically protected in Arabic lands more than Christian lands.
The people and governments of all the countries surrounding Israel are fully open in their desire to see every Jewish person in Israel dead.
The only reason they do not make this happen is because militarily they cannot. They tried several times.
Israel actually has the ability to kill all the people in those countries as they have air superiority and nuclear weapons. Of course they don’t do it.
First off, you over generalize like everyone. Second, You claim that because Isreal DOESN’T NUKE ALL ITS NEIGHBORS, that they have the moral high ground? You do know that you don’t shit where you eat and you don’t nuke where you live. And third… they are bombing Gaza, and i would say indiscriminately if they didn’t have such high numbers of innocent people killed.
If Israel wanted their neighbors dead just as much as their neighbors want Israel dead, they could use conventional weapons to achieve that.
If the Arab League countries had the ability to invade Israel and kill every Jewish person there, they would do that.
Tens of thousands of Arab Muslkms live, work and even serve office in Tela Viv.
Less than 100 jews total live in Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Egypt etc… The rest fled for their lives or where killed.
How come Jews in Tela Viv - Yasof can live side by side with Arab Muslims while Jews would not survive in the neighboring countries?
Hamas and the rest of the Jihadist Muslims are using the palestenian people as pawns to sway international opinion away from Israel so they can one day destroy it.
It’s not a just a conflict between Israel and Palestine. If you zoom out you will see its really a conflict between the west and jihadist Islam
It’s only Antisemitic when “their land” is defined “from the river to the sea.” There are 8 million people who are not Palestinians living there for generations now. Some families for centuries.
Of course they have a right to peaceful existence and security on the land where they live.
It is an emancipatory slogan that calls for an end to apartheid and for equal rights.
There’s no anti-semetism in those words, Palestinians include Muslims and Jews who lived there for centuries. The problem is europeans persecuted immigrants who were forced upon Palestinians. True Justice would be to divide Germany (biggest perpetrator) into two parts to give rise of Jewish state. Why would Palestinians take the brunt of Europe’s crime?
I thought one of the biggest lessons of this whole thing was trying to create a Jewish state (or anything similar) on top of a place where people already live is going to create conflict with the people that already live there.
Also telling Jews to go back to Germany after WWII. “War is totally over guys, time to go back to Germany.” That’s gonna sound like a childish prank.
Your logic is so cracked I don’t know where to begin. If “Europeans” are to blame for the oppression of Palestinians, then shouldn’t they be responsible for making a Palestinian state in Europe? That is a bonkers take. Please take a little time to think through the things you post.
Sure, if they want to tie up the genocide with a forced ressetlement.
Literally was just suggested by OP. Seems pretty inhumane to me, but you do you.
Edit: corrected user. Thought you were OP.
Both sides have innocent civillians that deserve to live on that land.
Both sides have absolute assholes that want the complete destruction of the other sides’ civillians.
Fuck em both. They put up graffiti posters with
IsraelPalestineIsraelPalestine is terrorism , and to me it just looks like thisIn defence of the Palestinians, they did not get to choose the ethnicity of their colonisers. And if anything, Jews have been historically protected in Arabic lands more than Christian lands.
The people and governments of all the countries surrounding Israel are fully open in their desire to see every Jewish person in Israel dead.
The only reason they do not make this happen is because militarily they cannot. They tried several times.
Israel actually has the ability to kill all the people in those countries as they have air superiority and nuclear weapons. Of course they don’t do it.
First off, you over generalize like everyone. Second, You claim that because Isreal DOESN’T NUKE ALL ITS NEIGHBORS, that they have the moral high ground? You do know that you don’t shit where you eat and you don’t nuke where you live. And third… they are bombing Gaza, and i would say indiscriminately if they didn’t have such high numbers of innocent people killed.
If Israel wanted their neighbors dead just as much as their neighbors want Israel dead, they could use conventional weapons to achieve that.
If the Arab League countries had the ability to invade Israel and kill every Jewish person there, they would do that.
Tens of thousands of Arab Muslkms live, work and even serve office in Tela Viv.
Less than 100 jews total live in Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Egypt etc… The rest fled for their lives or where killed.
How come Jews in Tela Viv - Yasof can live side by side with Arab Muslims while Jews would not survive in the neighboring countries?
Hamas and the rest of the Jihadist Muslims are using the palestenian people as pawns to sway international opinion away from Israel so they can one day destroy it.
It’s not a just a conflict between Israel and Palestine. If you zoom out you will see its really a conflict between the west and jihadist Islam