‘From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free’. It’s a slogan, a chant, a song that we’ve become accustomed to hearing, indeed wearied by, in recent weeks. And it’s getting right on my nerves.

Now let me recognise from the off that when it comes to the current bloodletting in Israel and Gaza, readers may stand with one side or the other, or neither. I would however argue that whatever your stance, ‘from the river to the sea’ fundamentally can only mean one thing; it means the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Jordan to the Med, and with it, the dismantling, by any means, of the state of Israel and the removal of the Jewish people from their ancestral homeland.

But this cunting isn’t meant to be directly about the current conflict, but much more about the persistent use of the tiresome ‘river to the sea’ anthem and what I perceive to be the mindset of many adopting it.

There are two aspects to this in my view. Firstly there’s the ‘useful idiot’ aspect. My strong suspicion is that for many ‘right on’ types, it’s merely a vacuous means to parrot their support for the latest fashionable cause, without actually having much or any understanding of the what’s actually at stake. As an illustration, I refer you a poll carried out by the Wall St Journal in Dec 2023. The paper polled some 250 students across the US, asking if they supported the ‘river to the sea’ aspiration, with some 86% saying that they did. When however they were asked actually to name the river and the sea at issue, less than half gave the correct answer, with responses including the Nile, the Euphrates, the Red Sea, and (Lord ‘elp us) the flaming Caribbean. A firm grasp of the issue then.

Wall Street Journal

The second aspect is the sheer naivity of people on the subject. Again by way of illustration, I give you the example of Welsh Warbler Charlotte Church. Sweet Charlotte has come in for a shed load of criticism after joining in with ‘river to the sea’ chanting at a pro-Palestine gig. So much so that she’s been forced to deny accusations of anti-Semitism, claiming that it’s not in any way meant as a call for the destruction of Israel, but as a call for ‘peaceful co-existance’ in the region. Yeah right; peaceful co-existence between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah and co. How fucking naive can you be if you believe that’s actually what this anthem’s about?

Mirror News

In closing, I reiterate what I said at the start. This ain’t about the conflict as such, about which cunters will have a range of opinions. It’s squarely about the persistent, aggressive use of this vacuous and very intimidating slogan in the supposed name of peace, justice and freedom. It’s my honest opinion that its usage stands for anything but, so to those so doing , I say stop assaulting my ears with your chant and stick it up your arse.

Nominated by: Ron Knee