Since there is a deliberate and concerted effort on the part of many to define the phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” as a call for the genocide of the Jewish people from Israel, it is important for those of us that use this phrase to correct this false narrative.

The majority of us that use this phrase envision either a single free state or two free states in what is now Israel and Palestine. In these free states we envision no discriminatory rules or laws based upon an individual’s religion or ethnic or national origin. We envision Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists and other religious or non-religious peoples living together between the river and the sea with no restrictions on movement within any state, no harassment from members of other communities, no rules that burden or unburden one group above another.

We envision the right of return for all peoples forced to flee their homes in the last 100 or so years, and just compensation for the land and property theft of the past. We envision reparations for the systemic burdens and Apartheid placed upon Palestinian and Israeli Arabs by the British and Israeli governments. We envision a system of truth and reconciliation to atone for past oppression similar to what transpired in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Freedom for Black South Africans did not require the elimination of white South Africans. Freedom for Northern Ireland did not require the elimination of Catholics. Freedom for Palestine does not require the elimination of Jews in Israel.

Intentionally conflating the phrase “From the River to the Sea…” with the elimination of the Jewish people is similar to conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The two are not the same, but their linkage serves to dismiss the validity of the opinions and perspective of the oppressed Palestinians and the people that support and defend their human rights. Claiming that the elimination of the Jewish people from Israel is the goal of anyone who uses the phrase is a fear mongering tactic that serves the narrative of dehumanizing the Palestinian people and supporters while stoking hatred of Palestinians in the people of Israel.

In the UK the Labour Party has suspended MP Andy McDonald pending an investigation for saying, “We won’t rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty,” at a protest for Palestine solidarity. UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has called for police to take action against people using the phrase, or even waving the Palestinian flag. Braverman describes the phrase as, “widely understood as a demand for the destruction of Israel.”

While the original founding documents of Hamas did not mention the phrase, Hamas’ updated foundational document of 2017, which is a major shift in tone from its earlier declaration, has added the phrase in section 20 (emphasis added):

20. 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. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.

Since Hamas uses this phrase and Hamas has been roundly demonized in the western media, some people may conclude, whether honestly or not, that the phrase must have evil intent and truly seek the elimination of the Jewish people from Israel. That reading, however, negates other parts of the 2017 document, such as,

16. Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.

Still, many profess the antisemitism of the phrase. defining it in oppressive and even genocidal terms. But before the updated Hamas document of 2017, another political group in Palestine used a variation of the phrase. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party had this language in their 1977 Party Platform (emphasis added),

a. The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

And the 2011 Likud Platform uses this language, “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.” As well as, “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel.”

When all people are free from the river to the sea and the conditions are in place for all to thrive, then Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.