Jewish World Update Mar/Apr 2024
‘From the River to the Sea’: A Call for Israel’s Destruction
by Steven Stalinsky
(JNS)—Less than 24 hours after Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, its Tehran representative, Khaled Qaddoumi, gave an interview to Iran’s Press TV about the “historic event [that] took place in the holy land of Palestine . . . the Al-Aqsa Flood battle to liberate Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, in order to expel the Zionist regime.”
The following day, he added, “We will witness the liberation of the dear homeland of the Palestinian people from the river to the sea, as well as the destruction of the Zionist regime.”
Though the tens of thousands of anti-Israel protesters worldwide chanting “From the river to the sea” fully understand its true meaning, many insist this phrase is merely an expression of support for the Palestinians, not a call for the destruction of Israel and for killing Jews.
Such antisemites are playing a disingenuous game to hide their true beliefs. For example, antisemites use coded language and symbols to prevent removal or shutdown of their social media accounts, such as the triple parentheses—the so-called “echo”—to highlight the names of individuals and organizations thought to be Jewish. On TikTok, “the Austrian painter” is code for Hitler. New codes are emerging all the time.
On November 3, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib attacked President Biden in a tweet for his pro-Israel stance and warned that Arab and Muslim Americans would not support his reelection bid. Her tweet featured a video showing scenes of pro-Palestinian marches where participants chanted, “From the river to the sea.”
In response, the House of Representatives censured Tlaib, with some House members labeling the phrase a “call for the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews.” Tlaib claimed the slogan is “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”
Interestingly, Germany considers the phrase a Hamas symbol and banned it in early November; and countries such as Austria and the Czech Republic followed suit. Online platforms, including X and Etsy, soon began removing posts containing the slogan.
For Hamas and other jihadi groups, the phrase is an ideology and way of life. It is a fundamental part of a May 2017 Hamas policy document setting out the organization’s vision of a Palestinian state:
Hamas rejects any alternative to the complete liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. . . . Palestine in its borders from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean in the West, and from Ras Naqura [Rosh HaNikra] in the north to Umm Rashrash [Eilat] in the south is a complete unit and the land and homeland of the Palestinian people.
The Iranian regime and its proxy militias share Hamas’s destructive vision. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that “the only solution” for the Israel-Hamas war is “the establishment of the Palestinian state from the river to the sea.”
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stated, “Palestine from the river to the sea is the property of the Palestinian people” and that “the elimination of Israel” is “the interest of the entire Muslim world and the entire Arab world. . . . What the Arabs have wanted for 60 years is . . . for the land from the river to the sea to be returned” to the Palestinian people.
“From the river to the sea” is a universal call for the eradication of Israel. It is one of many manifestations of the deliberate misinformation emanating from the anti-Israel camp since October 7 that has deceived the media and other policy shapers into believing Israel is the aggressor in the Israel-Hamas war.
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