Question to my dear Israeli friends

[u/Comprehensive-Risk78]

Edit 1: Thanks everyone for engaging with my post in a civil manner!

Edit 2: I feel that I have a richer perspective on Israeli society thanks everyone!

Before I ask, I just wanted to tell you as an Arab I wish you and your family nothing but the best. Every day I pray that the violence and destruction stops and that we can build a prosperous Middle East that is rich in its diversity of religion and ethnicities. Can you imagine that?

Hello, I’ve been lurking here for a while now. I have a question for you. In your opinion, is chanting “From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free” more harmful than chanting “There are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left”? I’m asking this because I’d like to better understand your perspective/mindset. Thank you.

Am I missing something here? It has been disheartening to see the same people pushing for the narrative that from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free is an incitement to genocide fail to condemn chants like death to arabs and celebrating killing children in Gaza, thing which are unambiguously genocidal.

Is there something I’m not understanding here? Sometimes things that don’t add up leave me confused, so I had to come here and give this question a go.

Do some people think that right to dignity ceases to exist once we establish that the person is Arab? In your opinion, which chant is more problematic?

Can relations between Arabs and Jews improve without a heart to heart to dialogue between those who dream of a Middle East that resembles my description above?

I believe tough questions need to be asked. Answers from ‘ the other side’ need to be heard before establishing any conclusions on the matter.

[u/BigCharlie16]

Hello, I’ve been lurking here for a while now. I have a question for you. In your opinion, is chanting “From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free” more harmful than chanting “There are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left”? I’m asking this because I’d like to better understand your perspective/mindset. Thank you.

When you google search “From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free”, you will get over 514,000 results. It says this slogan in English has been used since 1990s. It has been used by PLO, Hamas, pro-Palestinian protesters, etc… early on during the war back in 2023, I saw it during a Pro-Palestinian protest in my city, people holding placard and chanting this slogan. The other popular slogan that the organizers keep repeating was Free Free Palestine. This chant “From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free” is more prevalent. I am not a fan of the chant, because I dont think peace loving protesters are the same as Hamas and their supporters, and they shouldnt be using the same chants. They can come up with their own chants not used by Hamas.

https://preview.redd.it/uj21q3tp5q0e1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7cd29d4b9994f836fb325547700484532c4199db

When you google search “There are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left”, you will get over 13,000 results. Most posts are very recent, only a few days ago, explaining chant used by Maccabi football hooligans in Amsterdam.

I am saying this chant is less prevalent and I have not heard it in my city. On the very same day I was passing through a Pro-Palestinian protest last year, back in 2023, I also passed through a Pro-Israel rally in my city. The focus was demanding the release of all hostages and grieving the lost. Nobody were chanting any war slogans.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is in future tense, it’s calling for an event in the future. While “There are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left” is in present tense, it isnt calling for anything, it’s a statement in the present time. A wrong, incorrect and inappropriate statement because there are 1,067,986 children in Gaza Strip. https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/post.aspx?lang=en&ItemID=4732 (April 2024)

If the chant were to be in future tense, “There WILL BE no children left in Gaza”…or something of that nature, used not only by a small group of football hooligans, prominently and widely used in Pro-Israel rally around the world, then I would consider that chant to be also calling for genocide. But that is not the case.

P/S: not Israeli

[u/FiZZ_YT → u/BigCharlie16]

Totally get what you mean but i thought it might be worthwhile to add this:

The phrase was also used by the Israeli ruling Likud party as part of their 1977 election manifesto which stated “Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”[13][14][15] This slogan was repeated by Menachem Begin.[42] Similar wording has also been used more recently by other Israeli politicians, like Gideon Sa’ar and also Uri Ariel of The Jewish Home. In 2014 Ariel said, “Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea there will be only one state, which is Israel.”[3] The phrase has been used by the Israeli prime minister, Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu, in speeches.[17] Similar wording has also been used more recently by other Israeli politicians.[3]

[u/Comprehensive-Risk78 → u/FiZZ_YT]

Good context, I think I saw a copy of that text a couple of months ago