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When Palestinian’s say “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” they are not calling for the ethnic cleansing of Israeli Jews/all Jewish people entirely. They are just asking for decolonisation.

Between the river (the Jordan River) and the sea (the Mediterranean Sea) lies Palestine, which has been occupied by Israel for the past 75 years. When they say Palestine will be free, they mean exactly that- for decolonisation; to end the illegal occupation of land that was theirs first.

I don’t know where the idea that this motto means genocide or is a “rallying cry for terrorists” came from, but all sources I have seen that spread this message are all pro-Israel and have unreliable propaganda filled articles. There is one article specifically that says that the Palestine flag emoji is used as shorthand for this phrase, and using it is antisemitic.

I hope people keep using this motto, keep chanting it at protests, and know that it does not making them antisemitic, pro-genocide, or an ignorant person. For it to not be obvious at this point that no Palestinian wants an ethnic cleansing of any kind, is shocking.

decolonizepalestine has an amazing article with more details about the history of the phrase and the myths surrounding it.