Wednesday, 1 November 2023

From The River To The Sea

The phrase 'From the river to the sea' has been getting an airing recently as it has been heard to been chanted at Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and has been as referred to as anti-Semitic.
To Israeli's it refers geographically to the Palestinian state running from area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea which includes Israel as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip and if that means the destruction of Israel then yes, it is anti-Semitic and should be stamped out.
Whether that is what the pro-Palestinian demonstrators mean i am not sure, the full saying is: 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free'  and has been used since the 1960s but i am pretty certain when Hamas use it they mean the destruction of Israel but it is a phrase not only used by Palestinians, it was actually written into the ruling Israeli Likud's Party manifesto and states 'between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty'.
As Benjamin Netanyahu is the current Israeli Prime Minister and leader of the Likud Party, which also includes in its manifesto that 'the Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river' then that is undeniably calling for the destruction of Palestine.
We therefore have one side run by leaders who have a policy of the destruction of Israel and the other side run by leaders who had manifesto pledges for the destruction of Palestine.
I suggest the rapidly growing Pro-Palestinian demonstrators use the full slogan to avoid any contention over exactly what they are chanting for.

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