England: “From the river to the sea,” what does it mean?
Following the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has been a rallying cry for pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses and in the streets of major cities. But what does this slogan mean? Does it express a desire for an independent Palestinian state, or is its meaning far darker? To answer those questions, we need to take a look at some Middle Eastern history.
A Palestinian national identity is barely a century old. Before Ottoman Turkish rule collapsed at the end of World War I, what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza had an Arab Muslim majority but also substantial Jewish and Arab Christian minorities. In 1922, the League of Nations appointed the United Kingdom to govern Mandatory Palestine. (Ironically, elderly Israeli Jews still have their “Palestinian” ID cards from that era.) A 1931 report by British authorities observed that the Arab community of Palestine had only “a vague conception” of an Arab nationality.
During the 1920s and 1930s, however, a national identity began to emerge among the Arabs of Palestine. What is striking about this identity is that it was largely based upon opposition to Jews immigrating to the ancient homeland of the Jewish people. In 1929, the Jews of Hebron were attacked by Palestinian nationalists who burned synagogues and murdered 67 innocent people. During the 1936-39 Arab revolt against British rule and Jewish immigration, hundreds of Jews were killed. By 1941, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a leading Palestinian nationalist, met with Hitler in Berlin and offered to bring the Holocaust to the Middle East.
After World War II, the British tired of trying to maintain order in Mandatory Palestine. They planned a withdrawal and tossed a hot potato to the newly created United Nations. In 1947, the UN proposed to partition Palestine between its Jews and Arabs. Palestinian nationalists immediately launched a civil war with their Jewish neighbors and, after a Jewish declaration of independence in 1948, Arab armies from neighboring countries invaded to destroy the newborn State of Israel. Fortunately, they failed.
Counterpoint: Azzi: Cry for freedom from the river to the sea
This rejection by Palestinians of a two-state solution in 1947-48 was the first of many. As recently as 2000, the Israeli government offered to recognize a Palestinian state in Gaza and much of the West Bank with eastern Jerusalem as its capital. Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader at that time, rejected the offer.
Why has it been so difficult to reach a two-state solution? After all, in 1905 Sweden and Norway agreed to a peaceful partition of the peninsula they now share. The answer lies in the nature of the Palestinian national identity. From its very beginning, it has opposed a greater Jewish presence in what some call the Holy Land and vehemently opposed Jewish sovereignty in the region.
The 1988 Hamas Covenant is perfectly clear about this opposition: “Israel ... will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” Only days ago, a Hamas official promised that his terrorists will repeat the attack of October 7 until Israel’s “annihilation” has been completed. But what about Mahmoud Abbas and his “moderate” Palestinian Authority? Couldn’t he be a partner for peace? The problem is that Abbas is a Soviet-trained antisemite. At an August 2023 meeting of his party’s Revolutionary Council, Abbas revealed his true feelings: “They say Hitler killed the Jews because they were Jews. Not true ... [Europeans] fought against these people because of their role in society ... usury, money, ... [and] sabotage.” [Le Monde, 8 Sept. 2023]
So, whether a protesting freshman at Columbia University or Harvard College knows it or not, the true meaning of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not that the Palestinian people will achieve sovereignty in their own nation. Rather, it means that all of Palestine will eventually be freed of its Jews, either by murder or by expulsion. This means Tel Aviv and Haifa, not just the West Bank.
This expression of Palestinian national identity is tragic for Jews and Arabs alike. As Einat Wilf, herself a supporter of a two-state solution, has remarked, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians will end only when the Palestinian people and their leaders come to accept the permanent existence of the State of Israel.
Richard England is a retired UNH economics professor and a member of the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: England: “From the river to the sea,” what does it mean?
