The story behind ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’

Uniting people from Beirut to Las Vegas, Tunis to Rome, pro-Palestinian demonstrations have swept across the globe, as they took the streets to condemn Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza.

And the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” has become a rallying cry for the crowds. It is also drawing Western censure from officials who perceive it to be anti-semitic.

"It is a shorthand for declaring that wherever Palestinians live in historical Palestine, whether citizens of Israel or residents of occupied territories, they suffer from some form of oppression, and this must end,” says an expert on human rights in the Middle East, who insisted on remaining anonymous and to be identified with her pseudonym Dr Nancy Sokolnik.

The slogan essentially expresses the desire for a unified Palestine state stretching from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.

It’s also deeply embedded in Palestinian folklore and revolutionary songs, featuring various Arabic versions, with the most common being “min el-maiyeh lel mayieh” signifying “from the water to the water” - a poetic reference to the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.

Experts say the phrase holds profound cultural significance and plays a pivotal role in shaping Palestinian identity and nationhood.

It underscores the connection to the land, calls for decolonisation, freedom, and the end of Israeli occupation with a single, inclusive state representing Palestinians and ensuring equal rights for all.

However, pro-Israeli groups often label the phrase as pro-Hamas slogan and interpret it as a “call to destroy Israel.” The Israeli narrative has been gaining momentum since the outbreak of hostilities October 7.

Linking it to violence

Following some of the pro-Palestinian protests in London, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman issued a warning to police chiefs on Tuesday regarding the display of Palestinian flags and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans.

Although misrepresenting some of the essential aspects of Palestinian freedom struggle, Bravermen warned in her letter that the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” should be interpreted as an indication of a violent desire for the elimination of Israel.

Vienna police took a similar stance on Wednesday, banning a pro-Palestinian protest based on the inclusion of the phrase “from the river to the sea” in their invitations and characterising it as a call to violence, suggesting that it implied the erasure of Israel from the map.

“Fundemantally it is this ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, a PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) slogan that has been adopted by Hamas,” said Gerhard Puerstl, the head of the city’s police force.

This isn’t the first instance where the slogan has come under fire.

In 2018, CNN fired Marc Lamont Hill, an African-American author and activist, following his comments at a UN plenary on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which included a call for “a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

Unpacking its message

In her 2018 article titled “From the river to the sea doesn't mean what you think it means,” Maha Nassar, a historian specialising in the 20th century Arab world with a focus on Palestinian history, delved into the historical roots of this slogan.

Nassar says that this slogan’s historical roots stretch much further back than the establishment of Hamas and are as old as the Palestinian resistance against Zionism.

The call for freedom ‘from the river to the sea’ in the slogan can be traced back to earlier efforts to establish Jewish state in Palestinian lands some 76 years ago, she writes.

On November 29th, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted to divide Palestine into two separate states: one Jewish and one Arab. While Jews in Palestine celebrated this decision, the Arab population deeply opposed it.

They viewed all of Palestine, “from the river to the sea,” as an indivisible homeland.

Following the UN vote, clashes erupted between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Zionist militants carried out violent attacks, resulting in the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes and lands.

Many Palestinians see “From the river to the sea” as a prelude to a state of their own where they can live as free citizens without facing daily Israeli discrimination.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from homes when the Israeli state was carved out of the historical land of Palestine.

As Sokolnik points out, the mass expulsions of Palestinians from the "Land of Israel" has a historical record, from the 1947-1952 Nakba to ongoing expulsions from villages and neighborhoods in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In addition to that, there has been incitement to war crimes and crimes against humanity by Israeli politicians currently in government.

“Unless these are condemned and prosecuted adequately, then cracking down on pro-Palestinian demonstrators smacks of double standards,” says Sokolnik.

“The real prejudice that the UK home secretary and the Vienna police might be suffering from is anti-Palestinian sentiment.”