Between River and Sea

The phrase designates the land between the Jordan River to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west — the boundaries of the former British Mandate of Palestine before 1948, and the territory that today includes Israel, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), and Gaza.[1][4] Its precise origins are unclear; the American Jewish Committee describes them as unknown, while the Foundation for Defense of Democracies places the slogan in the early Palestinian national movement of the 1960s, acknowledging that early examples of its use remain elusive.[1][5]

By the 1960s and 1970s, the chant had become a signature phrase of the PLO, expressing a goal of a Palestinian state across the entire territory.[1] The PLO adopted the phrase as a central objective following its establishment in 1964, though its formal stated aims shifted after the 1988 Algiers Declaration toward a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.[6] Palestinian nationalist movements and, later, Hamas have used the slogan since the 1960s, and the full chant became a fixture of Palestinian protests globally.[4]

A Library of Congress catalog record documents a protest poster using the phrase, dated broadly between 1970 and 2010, illustrating its presence in activist contexts over several decades without establishing when it first appeared.[7]

Hamas has made the phrase a formal part of its political doctrine. Its 2017 document of general principles and policies describes Palestine as extending "from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west" and calls it "an integral territorial unit" and "the land and the home of the Palestinian people," explicitly stating that the establishment of Israel does not annul Palestinians' claimed right to the entire land.[8] Clause 20 of that document states that Hamas "rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea," while simultaneously describing a fully sovereign Palestinian state along the June 4, 1967 lines as a formula of national consensus — yet without recognizing Israel or relinquishing claimed Palestinian rights.[8] The same document characterizes armed resistance as a strategic choice and a legitimate right.[8]

Leading Hamas figures have invoked the slogan directly. In 1980, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat declared: "The victorious march will continue until the flag of Palestine is raised above Jerusalem and above the whole area of Palestine from the River to the Sea."[5] After his release from an Israeli prison in 1997, Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin stated: "Palestine is still occupied and the Hamas will not stop the holy war until the liberation of all Palestine from the river to the sea."[5] In August 2023, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said Palestinians wanted a state "from the River to the Sea."[9]

H.Res. 883, passed by the U.S. House, asserts that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and allied organizations have used the slogan as a rallying cry to destroy Israel and exterminate Jews.[3] A 2017 Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs analysis of the Hamas political document concluded that the organization retained an objective of destroying Israel despite its references to the 1967 lines as a temporary framework.[10]

The chant reached a new level of public visibility following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli military operation in Gaza.[1] The Antisemitism Policy Trust identified it as one of the most common chants heard at anti-Israel demonstrations in the United Kingdom.[11] On social media, Facebook recorded a 50-fold increase in use of the phrase in the six months following the outbreak of the war, according to a report on Meta's Oversight Board proceedings.[12]

The slogan appeared prominently in U.S. campus settings as well. As early as February 2003, the Rutgers Association for Middle East Justice displayed a banner reading "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free" at Rutgers College and Douglass College centers.[13] The post-October 7 environment brought such displays to a far broader range of campuses and public spaces, intensifying debate over the phrase's meaning and acceptability.[1][3]

The American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League characterize the phrase as antisemitic. The American Jewish Committee states that most American Jews hear it that way, and distinguishes between legitimate advocacy for Palestinian rights or a Palestinian state alongside Israel and the use of the phrase to call for Israel's erasure or the ethnic cleansing of Jews.[1] The AJC notes that contextual signals — accompanying symbols or text that suggest violence, exclusion, or discrimination against Jews or those described as "Zionists" — can indicate antisemitic intent.[1]

The ADL describes the slogan as antisemitic and characterizes its use in anti-Israel campaigns and demonstrations, including by supporters of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as implying a Palestinian state encompassing all of Israel's territory — amounting to the dismantling of the Jewish state and the denial of Jewish self-determination.[2]

The Antisemitism Policy Trust's 2022 report on pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the UK similarly identifies one reading of the chant as a call for Israel's annihilation and the expulsion or killing of Israeli Jews, associated with the establishment of an Arab Muslim state without a Jewish presence.[11]

On April 16, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.Res. 883 by a vote of 377–44, with one member voting present.[3] The resolution formally expressed the sense of the House that the slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" is antisemitic and should be condemned, stating that it denies Jewish self-determination and seeks Israel's eradication.[3] The resolution's whereas clauses further assert that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and their sympathizers have used the phrase as a rallying cry for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of Jews.[3]

A separate House debate on November 7, 2023, concerned Representative Rashida Tlaib's use and defense of the slogan. In the Congressional Record, Tlaib's explanation of the phrase is quoted as "an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate."[14] Representative Rich McCormick called it "a call for the complete destruction of Israel," while Representative Jamie Raskin noted that Tlaib's explanation differed from how Hamas itself uses the phrase.[14] Representative Madeleine Dean acknowledged that people interpret the words differently and that some perceive them as a threat.[14] The House censured Tlaib on November 7, 2023. Months later, 43 progressive members and Representative Thomas Massie opposed H.Res. 883, while Dean voted present.[14][3]

The slogan's meaning has been genuinely contested, with a wide range of interpretations offered by its users, critics, and analysts. The AJC acknowledges that some people deploy the phrase without knowing how most Jews receive it, saying they intend to express solidarity with Palestinians or a call for human rights and equality across the land rather than Israel's eradication.[1] Palestine Solidarity Campaign organizers have described the slogan as expressing "the right of all Palestinians to freedom, equality and justice."[15] Scholar Maha Nassar has described it as a call for a secular democratic state throughout historic Palestine, while Charlotte Kates has stated: "I interpret it to be about liberation" and that "it doesn't have to do with kicking anybody out."[5]

For many Palestinians, the phrase has historically expressed the aspiration of a right of return to communities displaced before 1948, and a vision of one independent Palestinian state incorporating Gaza, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), and East Jerusalem.[6] The phrase's political meaning has thus varied with speaker, context, and era.

Critics argue, however, that the documented record of how the phrase has been used by Hamas and PLO leaders forecloses charitable readings. The FDD article disputes interpretations centered on liberation and coexistence, contending that historical use supports a meaning centered on rejecting Israel's existence.[5] The ADL similarly argues that whatever individual users may intend, the phrase structurally implies the denial of Jewish self-determination by encompassing the full territory of Israel.[2]

Meta's Oversight Board, reviewing three specific Facebook posts in September 2024, concluded that the phrase has multiple possible meanings and that context must be assessed before removal is warranted; it found no calls for violence or exclusion of Jews or Israelis in the posts it examined and rejected automatic or blanket removal of the slogan.[16] The board acknowledged, however, that the phrase can be used to "encourage and legitimize antisemitism and the violent elimination of Israel and its people."[12] A minority view on the board, advanced by member Emi Palmor, argued that after October 7 and given the phrase's presence in the Hamas charter, posts should be permitted only when they clearly disavow support for Hamas or violence against Israelis and Jews.[16]

Jonathan Jacoby, president and national director of the Nexus Project, said in a 2025 interview that the phrase is "sometimes used in ways that are antisemitic, but sometimes aren't," calling for nuance rather than treating it as an automatic litmus test.[17]

The same geographic reference point has appeared in statements by Israeli politicians advancing very different political positions. In 2014, Minister Uri Ariel stated: "Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea there will be only one state, which is Israel."[4] In 2020, Gideon Saar stated: "Between the Jordan River and the sea there won't be another independent state" — a position understood as opposing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.[4] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has favored the phrase "west of the Jordan" to describe the same territory.[4]

The 1977 Likud platform used the wording "Between the sea and the Jordan river, there will only be Israeli sovereignty."[16] A later Likud platform associated with Netanyahu similarly read: "Between the sea and the Jordan there will be only Israeli sovereignty," and Likud subsequently replaced that formulation.[6] A Calcalist CTech article criticized Meta's Oversight Board for presenting the Hamas and Likud usages side by side without, in the article's view, adequately distinguishing their political contexts.[16]