Behind this slogan lie two distinct ideas:
“Free Palestine”: A call for a single Arab state encompassing all of Historic Palestine
The slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine should be free” refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, where the State of Israel currently exists. For anyone looking at a map, it’s clear that this implies the destruction of Israel. This vision is widely supported by Palestinians and groups like Hamas and Iran. Since there is no other homeland for the Jewish people, it essentially calls for the elimination of Israel’s population and is broadly understood as a call for genocide.
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A call for two-state solution
During the 1967 war with Jordan, Egypt, and others, Israel took control of the territories of Samaria, Judea, and Gaza. These areas are formally recognized as the land where a future Palestinian state should be established under a two-state solution. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Israel made significant efforts to achieve a peace deal and establish this solution. This included arming and supporting Yasser Arafat, a man Israel despised as much as it does Yahya Sinwar today. As Yitzhak Rabin famously said, “You don’t make peace with friends. You make it with very unsavory enemies.”
However, these efforts ultimately failed. While many factors contributed, the central reason was the Palestinians’ refusal to accept the 1947 UN resolution, which recognized Israel’s right to exist. Palestinians remain unwilling to relinquish the idea of controlling all of Palestine, leaving no room for a Jewish Israel. As a result, the conflict has grown increasingly violent, with Palestinians determined either to win or die trying.
Dennis Ross, a former Middle East Coordinator. highlighted this after the failed 2000 Camp David Summit, noting that Arafat wanted “a one-state solution. Not independent, adjacent Israeli and Palestinian states, but a single Arab state encompassing all of Historic Palestine.” Saudi Prince Bandar also warned at the time, “If Arafat does not accept what is available now, it won’t be a tragedy; it will be a crime.”
After the failure of the Camp David Summit and the outbreak of the Second Intifada, Israel implemented its Gaza disengagement plan in 2005. There were hopes that Gaza could develop into a Mediterranean Singapore, but those hopes quickly faded as Islamic fundamentalism took hold instead.
In 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert put forward yet another comprehensive peace plan, but Mahmoud Abbas did not respond. Over time, even though Israel is a vibrant democracy with heated debates on many topics, and while a majority of Israelis still believe in a two-state solution in the long run, there is now a consensus that Palestinians are currently unwilling to accept a two-state solution as outlined by UN Resolution 181. Many believe that there is no viable partner for such an agreement, and any part of the occupied territories that is not under Israeli military control would quickly become a staging ground for future attacks on Israel and its civilians, as demonstrated by the brutal Hamas attack on October 7th.
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