Post by Fadi Ghandour

"Much controversy since October 7 about a slogan and a term that make Israel and its supporters apoplectic: “Palestine Free From The River to the Sea” and “Decolonialization.” As I always say, context is king, and Peter Beinart does a wonderful job unpacking the rich history of these two terms. I am with him that a more accurate slogan that better reflects the aspirations of those who sing it would be “Palestinians Free from the River to the Sea.” I have no doubt in my mind that Israel will find this catchphrase no less objectionable, but the idea is not to please Israel but to describe well the meaning of many of those chanting it. Here’s an excerpt from Beinart’s substack piece that shows the implicit racism and absurdity in banning the two said phrases on Twitter. To say [Palestine free from the river to the sea] implies genocide, it seems to me is just fundamentally kind of unfair. It’s especially unfair because of the profound double standard, right? Because there isn’t a Palestine from the river to the sea, so we don’t know how it would treat Jews. But there is an Israel from the river to the sea and we know how it treats Palestinians, right? Like that’s not theoretical. That exists, right? And it’s considered to be an apartheid state by its own leading human rights organizations, right—B’Tselem, Yesh Din—because most of the Palestinians under Israeli control are not even citizens and don’t even have the right to vote in the country that controls their lives. And what’s even more absurd is that Israeli officials, in justifying this one apartheid state that exists, they use the phrase ‘from the river to the sea.’ The Likud charter says, ‘between the river and the sea, there will be only Jewish sovereignty,’ right? But that’s not banned on Twitter. Basically, to say, we’re gonna control all this territory. Millions of Palestinians are not gonna have the most basic human rights." Amal Ghandour #israel #palestine #fromolivetree #toorgangetree