Tlaib defends ‘from the river to the sea’ as ‘aspirational call for freedom’

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) defended a Palestinian chant as an “aspirational call for freedom.”

The phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” references the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — currently split between Israeli and Palestinian territories. The phrase was coined in the 1960s and has been used by a host of different groups with varying goals. Zionist groups view the call as a genocidal threat, while Palestinian groups insist it is a call for peace and liberty. Tlaib falls in the latter camp, as shown in a statement on Friday.

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“From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” Tlaib wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.”

The phrase features prominently in pro-Palestinian chants in Western countries. Analysts are divided on the exact origins and meaning behind the phrase — activists viewing the phrase as a genocidal threat point to statements by opponents of the state of Israel throughout history, such as former Syrian leader Hafez al Assad, who used parts of the phrase in a threat to “throw you into the sea for good.”

“To Jewish Israelis, what this phrase says is that between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, there will be one entity. It will be called Palestine — there will be no Jewish state — and the status of Jews in whatever entity arises will be very unclear,” Yehudah Mirsky, a Jerusalem-based rabbi and professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University, told Al Jazeera.

“It sounds much more like a threat than a promise of liberation. It doesn’t betoken a future in which Jews can have full lives and be themselves,” he added.

On the other hand, most pro-Palestinians insist the phrase isn’t intended to be a threat or genocidal but is simply advocating for liberty for Palestinians in the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — using the literal interpretation of the phrase.

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“Those who support apartheid and Jewish supremacy will find the egalitarian chant objectionable,” Sultany, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, told Al Jazeera.

The phrase has been treated as comparable to hate speech in recent weeks in some parts of Europe — in the United Kingdom, a minister of Parliament was suspended from the Labour Party when he used a version of the phrase in a speech. U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said attempts to paint the phrase as anything other than a demand for the destruction of Israel are “disingenuous.”