Unpacking "From the River to the Sea"

 Let’s talk about "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

Many people have been taught that that phrase is a call for terrorism and genocide. I understand the caution, especially after brutal history like the Holocaust. But when we call for Palestine to be free, we mean freedom from apartheid and violence — NOT from Jewish people. 

Jewish people have rich ancestral ties to that land. This is undeniable, and they absolutely have a right to self-determination. People using "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"*** do not want to expel Jewish people from the land. We want an end to the apartheid and occupation. 

(***Of course, as with every movement, there will be disingenuous people using it as an excuse for hate. Antisemites who attempt to co-opt the Palestinian liberation cause for their vile bigotry are not welcome in this movement. Fortunately, they are very outnumbered.)

You might think: "What apartheid? Israel is a democracy. And they stopped occupying Gaza in 2005."

While it is true that Israel withdrew its forces from inside Gaza after 2005, they remained in the West Bank. And even with no active military inside Gaza, Israel still controlled it — for instance, by:

• illegally blockading essential materials (crutches, medicine, fuel, supplies to repair bombed civilian infrastructure)
• delaying or denying medical evacuation for sick children
• maintaining sole control over Gaza's borders (land and sea)
• explicitly denying Muslims the right to self-determination (this is stated in their Basic Law)
• stealing Gazan farmland
• heavily regulating how far Palestinians can fish in the sea along Gaza's coast
• forbidding Palestinians to collect rainwater, dig wells, or build new water infrastructure

The occupation and apartheid is clear.

Then you must look at the violence. Both the IDF and Hamas have attacked the other, and they have both targeted civilians. This is true. But Hamas was founded in 1987, and Israel has been enacting campaigns of violence since 1947 — the country was founded by military forces expelling over 700,000 Palestinians from their houses, and the descendants of those Palestinians are still not allowed to return to their homes. And the IDF has targeted and killed more civilians than Hamas ever has.

Unfortunately, these violent attacks by Israel have stirred up more retaliatory violence, which leads to suffering of all civilians. 

So when we call for a free Palestine, we want this injustice to end. We want a democratic state with equal rights for all. We want civilian infrastructure to be rebuilt, the occupation to be ended, and Palestinians to get back the houses stolen from them in 1948. We want an end to the abuse of Palestinian prisoners (who are largely held without charge, making them hostages).

This also means all war criminals (ALL!) need to face appropriate consequences. 

This is what “From the river to the sea” means. It’s a call for equality and liberation. 

From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, Palestine will be free of apartheid. And Jewish, Arabic, Palestinian, Muslim… everyone will get to share that land in peace.