By LAURIE KELLMAN (Associated Press)
The Jordan River is a winding, 200-plus-mile run on the jap flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank. The sea is the glittering Mediterranean to its west.
But a phrase concerning the area in between, “from the river to the sea,” has turn out to be a battle cry with new energy to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists within the aftermath of Hamas’ lethal rampage throughout southern Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” pro-Palestinian activists from London to Rome and Washington chanted within the risky aftermath of Israel’s bloodiest day. Adopting or defending it may be pricey for public figures, equivalent to U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was censured by the House on Tuesday.
But like a lot of the Mideast battle, what the phrase means relies on who’s telling the story — and which viewers is listening to it.
Many Palestinian activists say it’s a name for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and decades-long, open-ended Israeli army rule over thousands and thousands of Palestinians. Jews hear a transparent demand for Israel’s destruction.
This a lot is evident: Hamas fighters killed greater than 1,400 individuals in Israel and hauled a minimum of 240 again to Gaza as hostages within the worst violence towards Jews because the Holocaust. Israel responded with heavy bombardment of Gaza and a floor offensive, that has killed greater than 11,000 Palestinians, in keeping with the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The loss of life toll is definite to rise. The result’s the deadliest spherical of Israeli-Palestinian preventing in many years. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
In the uncooked afterburn of the Hamas assaults, the mantra appears to place everybody on edge.
SLOGAN ADOPTED BY HAMAS
“From the river to the sea” echoes by means of pro-Palestinian rallies throughout campuses and cities, adopted by some as a name for a single state on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.
By 2012, it was clear that Hamas had claimed the slogan in its drive to say land spanning Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north,” Khaled Mashaal, the group’s former chief, mentioned that 12 months in a speech in Gaza celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of the founding of Hamas. “There will be no concession on any inch of the land.”
The phrase additionally has roots within the Hamas constitution.
The story behind the phrase is far bigger, and reaches throughout the many years.
In the months earlier than and throughout the 1948 warfare, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or have been expelled from what’s now Israel. Many anticipated to return. Israel captured the West Bank, together with Gaza and east Jerusalem, within the 1967 warfare. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, and in 2007, Hamas claimed the tiny strip from the Palestinian Authority after a violent coup.
WHAT JEWS SAY THEY HEAR
Even the shorthand, “from the river to the sea,” echoes by means of pro-Palestinian protests, crackles throughout social media and is offered on quite a lot of merch, from sweatshirts to candles.
Ask Jewish individuals in London what’s so chilled them concerning the present spike in antisemitism, and plenty of will cite what looks as if the ubiquity of the slogan. It is an indication, they recommend, that there’s a lot to concern.
“Have no doubt that Hamas is cheering those ‘from the river to the sea’ chants, because a Palestine between the river to the sea leaves not a single inch for Israel,” learn an open letter signed by 30 Jewish information shops all over the world and launched on Wednesday.
And within the wake of Hamas’ killing of civilians on Oct. 7, they’re not shopping for that the mantra is merely anti-Israel. Backed by teams such because the Anti-Defamation League, they are saying it’s inherently anti-Jewish.
“No one can now say that in the eyes of Hamas, a hatred of Israel does not mean a hatred of all Jews,” mentioned London resident Sarah Nachshen. “The slogans and placards and chants calling for the eradication of Israel and, indeed, all Jews have clearly shown this.”
WHAT PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS SAY
Tlaib, D-Mich., who has household within the West Bank and is Congress’ solely Palestinian-American, posted a video Nov. 3 that featured protesters chanting the slogan.
No stranger to criticism over her rhetoric on the U.S.-Israel relationship, Tlaib defended the slogan.
“From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” Tlaib tweeted, cautioning that conflating anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism “silence(s) diverse voices speaking up for human rights.”
Tweeted Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program and a senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington: “There isn’t a square inch of the land between the river and the sea where Palestinians have freedom, justice and equality, and it has never been more important to emphasize this than right now.”
A TWO-STATE SOLUTION
Most of the worldwide group helps a two-state resolution, which requires the partition of the land. To many, although, many years of Israeli settlement enlargement have made the truth of a two-state resolution unimaginable.
Right-wing Israelis have blurred the traces between Israel and the West Bank, the place half one million individuals now reside in settlements. Many within the Israeli authorities assist the annexation of the West Bank, and official authorities maps usually make no point out of the “green line” boundary between the 2.
And the unique platform of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s celebration, Likud, printed a model of the slogan, saying that between the ocean and the Jordan River, “there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
THE RISK OF THE SLOGAN
Using the phrase for public figures may be pricey. Tlaib’s censure is a punishment one step wanting expulsion from the House.
Last month, Vienna police banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration, citing the truth that the phrase “from the river to the sea” was talked about in invites and characterizing it as a name to violence.
And in Britain, the Labour celebration issued a brief punishment to a member of Parliament, Andy McDonald, for utilizing the phrase throughout a rally at which he known as for a cease to bombardment.
“We won’t rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis & Palestinians, between the river & the sea can live in peaceful liberty,” he tweeted.
Then he defined: “These words should not be construed in any other way than they were intended, namely as a heart felt 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.” ___
Follow Kellman at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman
Source: www.bostonherald.com”