Zionism’s From “the River to the Sea” Reality and Dream!

Zionism and Israel’s spokespeople manufactured public relations strategy and colonial fear-mongering centering on problematizing the “from the river to the sea” chant is a welcome intervention. Not that the chant is beyond reapproach, but what is left out of any discussion or critique is what I would like to focus on below. Zionism claims that the chant is a call to annihilate Israel, which stands in stark contrast to the basic fact that the Israeli army and government are committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom are refugees from the 1948 Nakba and ethnic cleansing. Using censorship and problematizing the protesters served as a diversion from critiquing Israel’s actions and attempts to bring an immediate ceasefire.

Here, the ADL, AIPAC, JCRC, AJC, ZOA, Stand With US, and others frame the chant as a threat to annihilate Israel and bring this “great” Western post-WWII achievement to an end. What each person using the chant means can be ascertained by asking them individually and collectively, which all journalists and serious people are welcome to do. Absented from all this public relations fear-mongering is the Palestinians themselves and what they faced in the last 75 years and are facing presently. Let me put some critical items on the conversation table to broaden the debate.

Firstly, Israeli propaganda often requires individuals to undergo a mental lobotomy and engage in history without history. In this regard, all Israel’s spokespeople would like us to believe that history begins with Zionism, moves for Zionism, and is threatened by any serious critique of Zionism. This makes it a requirement to reduce Jewish history and multilayered experiences across the globe to the emergence of Zionism and the creation of an ethnoreligious nationalist, chauvinist, colonial, and Eurocentric state. Critically, Palestine's history is systematically denied, fought, and erased to keep up the facade created by Zionism.

Second, Israeli propaganda is loathed for facts and evidence, which makes it very convenient to draw upon an internally formed narrative that denies the existence of anything other than what the public relations machine produces. However, facts and evidence are stubborn things; sooner or later, they come to knock on those who have intentionally fought or denied them while forging a “pristine” colonial project.

Third, Zionism has created a settler colonial state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which is the actual state of affairs. So, now the ADL, AJC, and AIPAC have to create a ring of fire to protect Israel, but let's get them to respond to some issues related to the protest chant — from the River to the Sea: What is the ADL, AJC, AIPAC and other Israel defenders view the 2018 Israelis law that exclusively states that sovereignty is to be exercised by Jews in the state, which denies equal rights to the Palestinian citizens (22–25% of the population). Israel is not a state that belongs to its citizens but one that differentiates based on religion; only Jewish Nationals have sovereignty, but not Palestinian citizens. Would all these organizations call for equal sovereignty for all citizens, or would equality threaten the ethnoreligious nationalist, chauvinist, colonial, and Eurocentric Zionist state?

Fourth, the organizations stoking fear are insincere and continue to deny the existence of the occupation. So, what is ADL, AJC, JCRC, ZOA, and AIPAC's position on the occupation of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip? Should we take the actual Israeli law that defines sovereignty over all “Greater Israel,” or do you explicitly oppose the Israeli Knesset and government-adopted position? If you have opposed publically and in advocacy on Capital Hill, then I will await your evidence. Fear-mongering of a Palestinian chant while already having and living an ethnoreligious nationalist, chauvinist, colonial, and Eurocentric state from the river to the sea seems to be hypocritical and reeks of a double standard.

Fifth, connected to another relevant point of discussion, the settlements. Where is the opposition to the settlements, fundraising for the settlers, and protection granted to them by various US-based organizations? I know you will point to the “peace process,” calling for “negotiations,” and all the obfuscatory flowery language that you walk up to Capital Hill in suits and ties whenever the question is asked. I am seeking very concrete evidence of opposition, demands for cutting aid when funds are used to build settlements, denying invites to settler leaders in community spaces, opposing home demolitions, and stealing of homes, crops, and land in the West Bank.

Sixth, the argument boils down to an insistence on all the groups that are fear-mongering to give everyone a clear delineation of Israel’s borders with a Knesset vote to substantiate it. Should we take Israel’s actions across all of historical Palestine or listen to the public relations machine of the Hasbara network demonization of the critics? You can settle this very quickly by pointing to any concrete law and evidence that can provide anything to counter Zionism from the river to the sea lived reality.

Seventh, while fear of a chant is used to censor, target, and criminalize Palestine’s advocates, the lived reality of Palestinians is totally erased.Palestinians live as fourth-class non-sovereign citizens in Israel, military-occupied people in the West Bank, annexed populations in the Golan Heights, stateless internationally dependent people in the Gaza Strip in an open-air prison, and UN-registered refugees outside of historical Palestine.What legal status do you offer the Palestinians other than asking them to leave so you can have your modern state born out of Jewish anti-semitic experiences in Europe and not the Arab or Muslim world?

Eighth, Those who are screaming about the chant should provide a response to what solutions did they offer the Palestinians (sorry, I forgot that Palestinians don’t exist, so asking about a non-existent population is pure fiction and imagination on my part) other than throwing them out in the desert, across the seas and steal their homes and lands. I know you all are going to mention that God gave you the land, and you are just coming back to claim it, but was Abraham indigenous to Palestine, or didn’t he come as an immigrant from present-day Iraq? Talk about a new framing of manifest destiny, assuming that Palestinians, progressive and Orthodox Jews (not all Orthodox) populations accept this modern religiously formed colonial premise.

Ninth, the groups and organizations that are screaming the loudest about the chant are themselves calling for “letting Israel finish the job,” “flatten Gaza,” “turn it into a parking lot,” “expel them to Sinai, as a humanitarian gesture,” and impose no limits on the response. The chant argument is diversionary from the unfettered Israeli assault on the Palestinians, with ADL, AJC, AIPAC, JCRC, and ZOA all acting as a cheering and lobby squad in the US. Importantly, the call to transfer the Palestinians out from historical Palestine is foundational for Zionism and dates back all the way to Herzl himself, so the war on Gaza has to be understood with this lens in mind.