“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Palestinian Liberation:Offensive?
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“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
A slogan calling for freedom from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea has drawn scrutiny after pro-Palestinian demonstrators across the Western world were met with attempts to curtail its use.
The Labour Party on Monday suspended Member of Parliament Andy McDonald for using the phrase in a speech at a pro-Palestinian rally.
Earlier this month, Home Secretary Suella Braverman described pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches” and warned that the slogan should be interpreted as an indication of a violent desire for the elimination of Israel.
To Palestinian and Israeli observers alike, different interpretations over the meaning of the slogan hang on the term “free”.
Freedom here refers to the fact that Palestinians have been denied the realisation of their right to self-determination since Britain granted the Jews the right to establish a national homeland in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
“It’s important to remember this chant is in English and it doesn’t rhyme in Arabic, it is used in demonstrations in Western countries. The controversy has been fabricated to prevent solidarity in the West with the Palestinians.”
Allahu Akhbar@Al Jazeera
The Labour Party on Monday suspended Member of Parliament Andy McDonald for using the phrase in a speech at a pro-Palestinian rally.
Earlier this month, Home Secretary Suella Braverman described pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches” and warned that the slogan should be interpreted as an indication of a violent desire for the elimination of Israel.
To Palestinian and Israeli observers alike, different interpretations over the meaning of the slogan hang on the term “free”.
Freedom here refers to the fact that Palestinians have been denied the realisation of their right to self-determination since Britain granted the Jews the right to establish a national homeland in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
“It’s important to remember this chant is in English and it doesn’t rhyme in Arabic, it is used in demonstrations in Western countries. The controversy has been fabricated to prevent solidarity in the West with the Palestinians.”
Allahu Akhbar@Al Jazeera
It is a present day reality we live in a post-truth society.
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Suggests they would like Palestine's borders to start at "the river" and run to the [Mediterranean] "sea". If that is correct it is calling for the eradication of Isreal and one presumes all who live there. So it's a hate chant. Pretty clear no?
No, it isn't.
“From the river to the sea” is a rejoinder to the fragmentation of Palestinian land and people by Israeli occupation and discrimination. Palestinians have been divided in a myriad of ways by Israeli policy. There are Palestinian refugees denied repatriation because of discriminatory Israeli laws. There are Palestinians denied equal rights living within Israel’s internationally recognized territory as second-class citizens. There are Palestinians living with no citizenship rights under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. There are Palestinians in legal limbo in occupied Jerusalem and facing expulsion. There are Palestinians in Gaza living under an Israeli siege. All of them suffer from a range of policies in a singular system of discrimination and apartheid—a system that can only be challenged by their unified opposition. All of them have a right to live freely in the land from the river to the sea.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which describes itself as conservative and nationalist, has been a staunch promoter of the concept of “Eretz Israel”, or the Bible-given right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the party’s original party manifesto in 1977 stated that “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty”. It also argued that the establishment of a Palestinian state “jeopardises the security of the Jewish population” and “endangers the existence of the state of Israel”.
“From the river to the sea” is a rejoinder to the fragmentation of Palestinian land and people by Israeli occupation and discrimination. Palestinians have been divided in a myriad of ways by Israeli policy. There are Palestinian refugees denied repatriation because of discriminatory Israeli laws. There are Palestinians denied equal rights living within Israel’s internationally recognized territory as second-class citizens. There are Palestinians living with no citizenship rights under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. There are Palestinians in legal limbo in occupied Jerusalem and facing expulsion. There are Palestinians in Gaza living under an Israeli siege. All of them suffer from a range of policies in a singular system of discrimination and apartheid—a system that can only be challenged by their unified opposition. All of them have a right to live freely in the land from the river to the sea.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which describes itself as conservative and nationalist, has been a staunch promoter of the concept of “Eretz Israel”, or the Bible-given right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the party’s original party manifesto in 1977 stated that “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty”. It also argued that the establishment of a Palestinian state “jeopardises the security of the Jewish population” and “endangers the existence of the state of Israel”.
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What about the bit that said this slogan does not rhyme in Arabic?
What about the bit that said this slogan does not rhyme in Arabic?
IN English the rhyme is between sea-free, so i imagine the same words do not rhyme in Arabic.
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Sorry, Odds, the post was directed at MB...edited now.
You and i know full well the answer to that question, and we've both posted a map showing the designated lands were totally incompatible with a lasting peace.
perhaps he has a legal opinion to offer on the prose arrangement between the two languages?
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