From the river to the sea
[6] By 1969, after several revisions, the PLO used the phrase to call for a single democratic state for Arabs and Jews, that would replace Israel and the occupied territories.
Usage of the phrase by such Palestinian militant groups has led critics to say that it advocates for the dismantling of Israel, and the removal or extermination of its Jewish population.
[18] According to the American historian Robin D. G. Kelley, the phrase "began as a Zionist slogan signifying the boundaries of Eretz Israel.
[23][24] The Middle East scholar Elliott Colla says 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.
[25] 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.
Kelley writes that the phrase was adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the mid-1960s; [27][26] while Elliott Colla notes that "it is unclear when and where the slogan "from the river to the sea," first emerged within Palestinian protest culture.
[27] Thus by 1969, the PLO uses the phrase "free Palestine from the river to the sea" to mean a single democratic secular state that would replace Israel.
[28] Colla notes that activists of the First Intifada (1987-1993) "remember hearing variations of the phrase in Arabic from the late 1980s onwards" and that the phrases have been documented in graffiti from the period in works such as Saleh Abd al-Jawad's "Faṣāʾil al-ḥaraka l-waṭaniyya l-Filasṭīniyya fī l-ʾarāḍī l-muḥtalla wa-shuʿārāt al-judrān" (1991)[29] and Julie Peteet's "The Writing on the Walls: The Graffiti of the Intifada" (1996).
The version min an-nahr ʾilā l-baḥr / Filasṭīn sa-tataḥarrar (من النهر إلى البحر / فلسطين ستتحرر, "from the river to the sea / Palestine will be free") has a focus on liberation and freedom.
Omer Bartov notes the song "The East Bank of the Jordan" by the Revisionist Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky used the formulation shtei gadót le-Yardén: zo shelánu, zo gam kan (שתי גדות לירדן: זו שלנו, זו גם כן, "the Jordan has two banks; this one is ours, and the other one too").
[20][34] The Likud Party used the formulation ben ha-yam le-Yardén tihyé rak ribonút israelít (בין הים לירדן תהיה רק ריבונות ישראלית, "between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty").
[3] Among the materials recovered by American forces during the killing of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was a speech addressed to the American people, in which bin Laden proposed economic and security guarantees in exchange for a "roadmap that returns the Palestine land to us, all of it, from the sea to the river, it is an Islamic land not subject to being traded or granted to any party.
[51] On 30 October 2023, British Member of Parliament Andy McDonald was suspended from the Labour Party after stating in a pro-Palestine rally speech: "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".
[15][52] McDonald said at the time, "These words should not be construed in any other way than they were intended, namely as a heartfelt plea for an end to killings in Israel, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank, and for all peoples in the region to live in freedom without the threat of violence.
Before the vote, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries criticized the phrase as something which is "widely understood as calling for the complete destruction of Israel".
"[63] On November 17, 2023, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, announced a policy change, stating that users who use terms like "decolonization" and "from the river to the sea," or similar expressions would be suspended.
[65][66][67] Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, applauded Musk's action on November 17, calling it "an important and welcome move" and praising his "leadership in fighting hate.
"[66] Greenblatt's statement was reported by The Guardian as being part of an effort to gain influence on the far right, and that the head of the ADL's Center for Technology and Society (CTS), Yael Eisenstat, quit her position in protest.
"[64] Noah Lanard of Mother Jones wrote that the new policy would "presumably apply only to those who use the phrase [from the river to the sea] in support of Palestinians" and argued that Musk is "trying to cover up for his own bigotry.
[78][79][80] Civic figures, activists, and progressive publications have said that the phrase calls for a one-state solution: a single, secular state in all of Historic Palestine where people of all religions have equal citizenship.
[25][86][87] On 8 November 2023, Amazon told Newsweek that they would not be removing pro-Palestinian merchandise, including garments bearing the phrase, stating that the items do not "contravene our policies," which prohibit sale of products which "promote, incite, or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance.
"[88] Some politicians and advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)[26] and American Jewish Committee[26] consider the phrase to be antisemitic, hate speech and incitement to genocide.
[10][90][91] Such critics of the phrase claim that it has been explicitly used to call for the land to be placed entirely under Arab rule at the cost of the State of Israel and its Jewish citizens.
"[95] Lubet also says that, according to DEI norms, the racism of a certain speech can be determined not only by the intent of the speaker, but mainly by the impact it has on the people who feel offended or threatened by it.
In her opinion, the slogan 'from the river to the sea' represents a rejectionist unwillingness to compromise with the other nation on a two-state solution, which led the Palestinian leadership to reject the partition plan in 1947, leading to a catastrophe for their people.
[25] Anthropologist Nadia Abu El Haj notes that critics who characterize it as "threatening", "intimidating", or a call to "genocidal violence" when it is used in support of Palestine do not make equivalent claims when used by Israelis.
[104] Scholars Amos Goldberg and Alon Confino write in 2024, that it is not generally the case that the phrasing expresses a genocidal and antisemitic intention, instead historical usage articulates political strategies for Palestinian liberation.
[112][113] On 11 November 2023, the phrase was banned in Bavaria (Germany), and "the prosecutor's office and the Bavarian police warned that henceforth its use, regardless of language, will be considered as the use of symbols of terrorist organizations.
