After Tlaib’s censure, what does ‘from the river to the sea’ actually mean

A demonstrator holds a sign reading “From the river to the sea” at a Freedom for Palestine protest in Berlin on Nov. 4.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

In the days since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s military response, some Palestinian rights advocates have returned to a common refrain: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

It’s a geographical nod to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and the protracted tensions between Palestinians and Israeli Jews who live there.

But what does it actually mean? To some, it’s a rallying cry for the liberation of Palestinian people across the region, from Gaza to the West Bank and within Israel. To others, it is a violent call to erase Israel from existence invoked by militant groups such as Hamas.

The phrase has become especially politically charged in the days since the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 people in Israel. Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress have condemned the slogan, with one congressman referring to it as a “thinly veiled call for the genocide of millions of Jews in Israel.”

Outrage over the phrase culminated in the House of Representatives on Wednesday when it voted, 234-188, to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan after she used the slogan, including in a post on social media.

Tlaib said on the House floor that she was calling for a cease-fire.

“My grandmother like all Palestinians just wants to live her life with freedom and human dignity we all deserve,” she said.

Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at Arab Center Washington DC, says supporters of Palestine who…