"From the River to the Sea" in the Real World Context
editThere was significant discussion of this phrase in the discussion above, so I want to comment about it as well, and make a distinction between the hypothetical meaning of it, and the "real-world" meaning of it to which the ADL refers.
Some people say that the slogan “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” doesn’t necessarily negate the idea of Jewish self-determination in the holy land, since a "free and democratic" one-state solution can in theory be a manifestation of the self-determination of both Jews and Palestinians. That is debatable. But in any case, if people really meant this slogan in this way, then this should have been reflected in the protests where this slogan is chanted. For example it would have been expected that the people chanting this slogan would do it while carrying flags of Israel and Palestine together. Or that they would print on their shirts some of the ideas of combined flags that had been suggested for a one-state solution (see for example here, here and here).
But in fact nothing like this happens. In all the protests, the people that chant this slogan carry only Palestinian flags and symbols. Moreover quite often this slogan is visually explicated to mean the deletion of Jewish self-determination, by using it alongside images of the entire area of the holy land “from the river to the sea” covered by the colors of the Palestinian flag, or by a Palestinian keffiyeh, without any Jewish symbols whatsoever. See many examples from demonstrations (1 2 3 4 5), T shirts (including sold through Amazon), badges, masks, book covers and more.
So, to sum up, while hypothetically the slogan “from the river to the sea” might perhaps be used in a meaning that is not contradictory to Jewish self-determination, in practice in the protests and other contexts that the ADL condemned, it had actually been used as a slogan against Jewish self-determination, i.e. an Antisemitic slogan according to the IHRA definition appendix. In the words of Per Ahlmark - in the past some antisemites wanted to make the world Judenrein, today some antisemites want to make the world Judenstaatrein.
PS, the US house yesterday condemned this slogan as antisemitic, by a landslide majority of 86%! This shows again how ridiculous is the opinion that this is a fringe view, and that holding this view should make the ADL an unreliable source. This is especially true if consider that this is after all a political question and not a scientific one.
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"From the River to the Sea"
One viewpoint, by Elliott Colla, in an opinion piece in Mondoweiss. is that the relevant historical context for understanding 'from the river to the sea' is the history of partition and fragmentation in Palestine, along with Israeli appropriation and annexation of Palestinian lands.[1] In his opinion these include: the 1947 UN Partition plan for Palestine, which proposed to divide the land between the river and the sea; the 1948 Nakba, in which that plan materialized; the 1967 War, in which Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza; the Oslo Accords, that (in his view) fragmented the West Bank into Palestinian enclaves (that he describes as "an archipelago of Bantustans surrounded by Israeli settlements, bases, and checkpoints"); and the Israeli separation wall first erected after the Second Intifada.[1]
A different viewpoint of the context was expressed by Susie Linfield in an interview in Salmagundi magazine. In her opinion there is nothing wrong with both Jews and Palestinians "pursuing national self-determination". According to her the slogan 'from the river to the sea' represents a rejectionist unwillingness to compromise with the other nation on a two-state solution. In her opinion this unwillingness (or inability) to compromise led the Palestinian leadership to reject the partition plan in 1947, which ended in them losing everything so far.[2]
Another element of historical context is given by Maha Nassar from University of Arizona. According to her, the phrase "from the river to the sea" was used even before 1967, and expressed then the hope of the Palestinians to get free not only from the rule of Israel, but also from the rule of Jordan in the West Bank and from the rule of Egypt in Gaza strip.
- ^ a b Colla, Elliott (November 16, 2023). "On the history, meaning, and power of "From the River To the Sea"". Mondoweiss. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
- ^ Linfield, Susie (2024). "From The River To The Sea". Salmagundi Magazine. 222-223. Retrieved 2024-04-24.