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From the river to the sea

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"From the river to the sea" (Arabic: من النهر إلى البحر min al-nahr ila al-bahr) is, and forms part of, popular Palestinian and Israeli political slogans.[1]

It was used from the 1960s by Palestinian nationalists to assert varying territorial claims as to the boundaries of an independent Palestinian state as encompassing all of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the combined area of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Later, it was used to call for the freedom from oppression of Palestinians in those areas.[2][3][4][5] The slogan has also been used frequently in statements by other Arab leaders.[6][7]

The phrase has been claimed by some countries and advocacy groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee, to be "anti-Semitic", hate speech or even "genocidal",[8][9][10][11] suggesting that it denies the right of Jews for self determination in their ancestral homeland, or advocates for their removal or extermination. [12] Palestinian-American writers such as Yousef Munayyer and University of Arizona professor Maha Nassar have suggested that such a persuasive definition relies on racist and Islamophobic assumptions.[4][5]

Usage

The phrase today is widely in protest movements directed against Israel. Furthermore the phrase is used by organizations such as Hamas, PIJ and others in order to call for the supplementation of the Jewish State with a Palestinian State and the removal of the Jewish population.[13][8][9][10][11] The phrase has often been chanted at pro-Palestinian demonstrations for many years,[14] often followed or preceded by the phrase "Palestine will be free".[15][16] The phrase has been used to describe the desire to dismantle or remove the Jewish state.[17][18]

The phrase has been used by Palestinian politicians. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation embraced the slogan in the mid-1960s, and by 1969, "Free Palestine from the river to the sea" was used to mean "one democratic secular state that would supersede the ethno-religious state of Israel."[19] The 1977 charter of Likud states that "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty".[19] According to Ron Smith since Palestinian nationalism envisages a land-based state, whilst Israeli nationalism envisages an ethnically-based state, the use of this phrase is understood differently by Israelis and Palestinians. According to Ron Smith, for Palestinians it refers to the entirety of Mandatory Palestine.[20][fact or opinion?]

Interpretations differ amongst supporters of the slogan. Civic figures have argued that it calls for a single state in all of historic Palestine where people of all religions have equal citizenship.[21][2][4] This usage has been described as speaking out for the right of Palestinians “to live freely in the land from the river to the sea”, with Palestinian writer Yousef Munayyer describing the phrase as “a rejoinder to the fragmentation of Palestinian land and people by Israeli occupation and discrimination.”[22]

Islamic supporters have utilized a version stating "Palestine is Islamic from the river to the sea", with certain Islamic scholars have declared the Mahdi - a redemptive apocalyptic figure central to Islamic eschatology - will declare "Jerusalem is Arab Muslim, and Palestine — all of it, from the river to the sea — is Arab Muslim."[23][24] Hamas, as part of its revised 2017 charter, rejected “any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea", referring to all areas of former Mandatory Palestine and by extent the elimination of Jewish sovereignty in the region.[25][26][27][28]

Pro-Palestinian rally in Columbus, Ohio, 12 October 2023

Controversy and accusation of Anti-Semitism

On International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in 2018, American academic Marc Lamont Hill made a speech at the United Nations ending with the words: "...we have an opportunity, to not just offer solidarity in words, but to commit to political action, grassroots action, local action, and international action that will give us what justice requires. And that is a free Palestine, from the river to the sea."[29]

Critics of the slogan argued that it was calling for the land to be placed entirely under Arab rule at the cost of the State of Israel.[30] The usage of the phrase denying Jewish self sovereignty is considered anti-Semitic.[31] The Anti-Defamation League accused Hill of using the phrase "from the river to the sea" as code for the destruction of Israel.[32] Hill was then fired from his position as a political commentator for CNN.[33] The usage of this phrase has the effect of making members of the Jewish community or people affiliated with Israel feel ostracized and unsafe.[34]

During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, when Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip, the British home secretary Suella Braverman proposed criminalizing the slogan in certain contexts.[35] On 11 October 2023, Vienna police banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration, citing the inclusion of the phrase "from the river to the sea" in invitations, claiming it portrays a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[36]

Several European countries, including Austria and Germany, suggested considering the phrase to be a criminal offense.[37][38][39] Austrian chancellor Nehammer said the phrase could be a call for murder.[37][38][39]

References

  1. ^ Havrelock, Rachel (2007). "My Home is Over Jordan: River as Border in Israeli and Palestinian National Mythology". National Identities. 9 (2). Informa UK Limited: 105–126. doi:10.1080/14608940701333720. ISSN 1460-8944. 'From the River to the Sea' rings the refrain that defines the terrain of desire for Zionist and Palestinian national movements and promises both circumscription and distinction.
  2. ^ a b Sculos, Bryant W (2019-04-03). ""A Free Palestine from the River to the Sea": The 9 Dirty Words You Can't Say (on T.V. or Anywhere Else)". Class, Race and Corporate Power. 7 (1). Florida International University. doi:10.25148/crcp.7.1.008322. ISSN 2330-6297. S2CID 166905010.
  3. ^ Morris, Alexander (2023-10-24). "Debunked: 'From the river to the sea is anti-Semitic'". Middle East Monitor. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  4. ^ a b c Nassar, Maha (2018-12-03). "'From The River To The Sea' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means". The Forward. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  5. ^ a b "What Does "From the River to the Sea" Really Mean?". Jewish Currents. 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  6. ^ Ron Rosenbaum (18 December 2007). Those Who Forget the Past: The Question of Anti-Semitism. Random House Publishing Group. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-307-43281-0. Only two years ago he [Saddam Hussein] declared on Iraqi television: 'Palestine is Arab and must be liberated from the river to the sea and all the Zionists who emigrated to the land of Palestine must leave.'
  7. ^ Alan Dowty (2008). Israel/Palestine. Polity. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-7456-4243-7. One exception was Faysal al- Husayni, who stated in his 2001 Beirut speech: 'We may lose or win [tactically] but our eyes will continue to aspire to the strategic goal, namely, to Palestine from the river to the sea.'
  8. ^ a b ""From the River to the Sea" | #TranslateHate | AJC". www.ajc.org. 2021-03-15. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  9. ^ a b Eichner, Itamar (2023-10-25). "Austria's Nehammer says pro-Hamas chants will become criminal offense". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  10. ^ a b "Allegation: "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free" | ADL". www.adl.org. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  11. ^ a b "'From the river to the sea' prompts Vienna to ban pro-Palestinian protest". Reuters. 2023-10-11. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  12. ^ Angelos, James. "Israel-Hamas war cuts deep into Germany's soul". politico.eu. Politico Europe. "Hamas' ideology of extermination against everything Jewish is also having an effect in Germany," said the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country's largest umbrella Jewish organization."
  13. ^ "Israel-Hamas war: What does 'from the river to the sea' actually mean?". Sky News. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  14. ^ Barry Rubin (25 May 2010). The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-230-10687-1. Thus, the MAB slogan 'Palestine must be free, from the river to the sea' is now ubiquitous in anti-Israeli demonstrations in the UK ...
  15. ^ "From the river to the sea, Jews and Arabs must forge a shared future". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2022-10-31. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
  16. ^ "The Real Meaning of "From the River to the Sea"". The Jewish Journal.
  17. ^ "Allegation: "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free" | ADL". www.adl.org. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  18. ^ www.thejc.com https://www.thejc.com/news/news/suella-braverman-speaks-out-against-antisemitic-from-the-river-to-the-sea-chant-fNRhQWNHVCiUSXsK2gxrD. Retrieved 2023-10-28. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. ^ a b Kelley 2019: "The Likud Party's founding charter reinforces this vision in its statement that "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty."... During the mid-1960s, the PLO embraced the slogan, but it meant something altogether different from the Zionist vision of Jewish colonization. Instead, the 1964 and 1968 charters of the Palestine National Council (PNC) demanded "the recovery of the usurped homeland in its entirety" and the restoration of land and rights-including the right of self-determination-to the indigenous population. In other words, the PNC was calling for decolonization, but this did not mean the elimination or exclusion of all Jews from a Palestinian nation-only the settlers or colonists. According to the 1964 Charter, "Jews who are of Palestinian origin shall be considered Palestinians if they are willing to live peacefully and loyally in Palestine.' Following the 1967 war, the Arab National Movement, led by Dr. George Habash, merged with Youth for Revenge and the Palestine Liberation Front to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP embraced a Palestinian identity rooted in radical, Third World-oriented nationalism, officially identifying as Marxist-Leninist two years later. It envisioned a single, democratic, potentially socialist Palestinian state in which all peoples would enjoy citizenship. Likewise, Fatah leaders shifted from promoting the expulsion of settlers to embracing all Jews as citizens in a secular, democratic state. As one Fatah leader explained in early 1969, "If we are fighting a Jewish state of a racial kind, which had driven the Arabs out of their lands, it is not so as to replace it with an Arab state which would in turn drive out the Jews.. We are ready to look at anything with all our negotiating partners once our right to live in our homeland is recognized." Thus by 1969, "Free Palestine from the river to the sea" came to mean one democratic secular state that would supersede the ethno-religious state of Israel. Moreover, the Palestinian national movement had come to see itself as part of a global anti-imperialist movement in solidarity with other nonaligned or socialist nations, or revolutionary movements like the Black Panthers."
  20. ^ Smith, Ron J. (2012). "Geographies of Dis/Topia in the Nation-State: Israel, Palestine, and the Geographies Of Liberation". Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. 23 (2). International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE): 19–33. ISSN 1050-2092. JSTOR 41758893. Retrieved 2023-10-27. Thus, while the occupation functions through separation and isolation of Palestinian enclaves, Palestinian resistance remains national in character, insisting on the identity, culture and space represented by the phrase min al nahr ila al bahr, "from the river to the sea"… In many ways Palestinian and Israeli visions of the state talk past one another, and there are significant differences in the portrayal of the future for each nation… the territory of Israel has continued to expand, from its initial existence as a series of outposts in the first aliyah to a state-space encompassing the 1948 and 1967 territories. In this sense, it is the ethnic makeup of the state which defines it. This expansive and organic vision may be contrasted with the prevalent Palestinian nationalist narrative… The Palestinians with whom I spoke in the course of my research had a vision of a nationalism that demanded a Palestinian state as an entity rooted in geographic, not ethnic, boundaries. When I asked, "Where is Palestine?" the answer often was "Min al nahr illa al bahr" ("from the river to the ocean"). This phrase refers to the historical boundaries of Mandate-era Palestine. By comparison, in normal conversation, the 1967 boundaries are represented as a more immediate future. Israelis interpret this geography as the embodiment of Gamal Abd Al-Nasser's alleged threat to "push them into the sea," a dystopic, millenarian recall of past genocides. However, what separates the Palestinian nationalist vision from that of the Israeli utopic state is that there is no attempt to define its ethnic makeup. It is merely a state where Palestinians can live in relative peace and freedom. This lack of ethnic demands on a future state is present in proclamations from Palestinian leaders that in the event of a Palestinian state coming into being on the 1967 borders, Jewish settlers who choose to remain will be granted Palestinian citizen-ship. This discrepancy is not merely a diplomatic flourish; not one of my respondents, regardless of political affiliation, expressed a vision of an ethnically pure Palestinian state.
  21. ^ Bandler, Aaron (1 November 2021). "Dem NH Lawmaker Apologizes for 'From the River to the Sea' Tweet". The Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  22. ^ Munayyer, Yousef. "What Does "From the River to the Sea" Really Mean?". Jewishcurrents.org. Jewish Currents. Retrieved 27 October 2023. ."From the river to the sea" is a rejoinder to the fragmentation of Palestinian land and people by Israeli occupation and discrimination. Palestinians have been divided in a myriad of ways by Israeli policy. There are Palestinian refugees denied repatriation because of discriminatory Israeli laws. There are Palestinians denied equal rights living within Israel's internationally recognized territory as second-class citizens. There are Palestinians living with no citizenship rights under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. There are Palestinians in legal limbo in occupied Jerusalem and facing expulsion. There are Palestinians in Gaza living under an Israeli siege. All of them suffer from a range of policies in a singular system of discrimination and apartheid—a system that can only be challenged by their unified opposition. All of them have a right to live freely in the land from the river to the sea."
  23. ^ Anne Marie Oliver Research Scholar in Global and International Studies UC Santa Barbara; Paul F. Steinberg Research Scholar in Global and International Studies UC Santa Barbara (1 February 2005). The Road to Martyrs' Square : A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber: A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber. Oxford University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-19-802756-0. ... a message reminiscent of the popular intifada slogan 'Palestine is ours from the river to the sea,' which in the hands of the Islamists became 'Palestine is Islamic from the river to the sea.'
  24. ^ Cook, David (1 August 2008). Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature. Syracuse University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-8156-3195-8. Jerusalem is Arab Muslim, and Palestine — all of it, from the river to the sea — is Arab Muslim, and there is no place in it for any who depart from peace or from Islam, other than those who submit to those standing under the rule of Islam.
  25. ^ "A Document of General Principles and Policies (Hamas General Charter, rev. 2017)" (PDF). https://irp.fas.org/. Hamas. Retrieved 27 October 2023. " Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea." {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  26. ^ "Allegation: "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free" | ADL". www.adl.org. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  27. ^ Nassar, Maha (December 3, 2018). "'From The River To The Sea' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means". The Forward. Archived from the original on December 20, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  28. ^ "Woman explains meaning of 'from the river to the sea' slogan, asks anti-Israelis to wake up and call out Hamas terror". Hindustan Times. 2023-10-26. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  29. ^ Hill 2018.
  30. ^ David Patterson (18 October 2010). A Genealogy of Evil: Anti-Semitism from Nazism to Islamic Jihad. Cambridge University Press. p. 249. ISBN 978-1-139-49243-0. ... except the boundary indicated in their slogan 'From the river to the sea', which stipulated the obliteration of the Jewish state.
  31. ^ "Allegation: "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free" | ADL". www.adl.org. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  32. ^ AP 2018.
  33. ^ Kelley 2019, p. 77.
  34. ^ "Allegation: "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free" | ADL". www.adl.org. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  35. ^ Syal, Rajeev; Allegretti, Aubrey (10 October 2023). "Waving Palestinian flag may be a criminal offence, Braverman tells police". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 October 2023. I would encourage police to consider whether chants such as: 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' should be understood as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world, and whether its use in certain contexts may amount to a racially aggravated section 5 public order offence.
  36. ^ "'From the river to the sea' prompts Vienna to ban pro-Palestinian protest". Yahoo News. 2023-10-11. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
  37. ^ a b Glenn, Matis (2023-10-25). "Austrian Chancellor Visits Israel, Says 'From the River...' Will Be Considered Call to Murder - Hamodia.com". Hamodia. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  38. ^ a b "In Europe, Free Speech Is Under Threat For Palestine Supporters". TIME. 2023-10-20. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  39. ^ a b Breen-Portnoy, Barney (2023-10-25). "CAM Urges National and Local Leaders Worldwide to Follow Austria's Lead in Banning Genocidal 'From the River to the Sea' Slogan". Combat Antisemitism Movement. Retrieved 2023-10-28.

Bibliography

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