Students and pro-Palestinian activists gather outside Columbia University to protest the university’s stance towards Israel on April 18, 2024 in New York City. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Autumn has come and the promise has returned: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

I hope that the anger and fear created by last year’s discourse will be replaced by curiosity and interest this year.

I wrote an article in 2018. Forward We reveal the history of the sentence. Following the October 7 attack on Israel, the phrase became commonplace at pro-Palestinian protests and became a lightning rod for national debates about free speech.

American Jewish Committee condemned as hate speech. U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Detroit-area Democrat of Palestinian descent, rare congressional censure for what you said. And Elon Musk exiled From the X platform.

But the song continued to be sung on college campuses, including the University of Arizona, where I teach Palestinian history.

Last fall, a journalism student who was studying my writing at another university wrote to me and said that she had argued with her mother about the meaning and purpose of this statement. He was a descendant of Holocaust survivors and believed it was antisemitic. He was a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and often chanted the slogan at rallies.

A student group at George Washington University in November suspendedpartly to reflect those words on the campus building. This spring, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order prohibiting prevented protesters at public universities in the state from chanting the slogan.

The debate over this sentence reflects a larger issue generational divide How are Americans? to contain American Jews, watch this conflict.

Rather than demonizing young people calling for a free Palestine or completely suppressing freedom of expression, we should try to understand why so many people, especially young people, are calling for a “free Palestine from river to sea.”

Today’s young Americans more diverse more than previous generations. They are proud of themselves loyalty tolerance and their get engaged in social activism. Their activism tends to be guided by a guide. belief that they have a responsibility to make the world a better place. And because they tend to get their news from them social mediaThem see and hear directly from Palestinians on the ground.

As a result, many young people are unhappy with Israel’s dominance of many aspects of Palestinian life in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. They witness Israeli forces destruction Palestinian houses abuse Palestinians are at checkpoints, not allowing Palestinians access food, ThisAnd medical treatmentexposes Palestinians arbitrary arrestsand the imprisonment of Palestinians indefinitely with no fees or trials.

And this was before October 7th.

They witnessed Israeli air strikes last year to destroy Palestinian homes, schools, infrastructure and universities. they watched Palestinian journalists in Gaza They convey the horror around them, risk They continue their lives in this process. They felt the pain of Palestinian parents desperately searching for their children among the ruins of their bombed homes. they heard first hand accounts from doctors and nurses They work under unimaginable conditions in Gaza disabled hospitals.

And they watch as the death toll continues to rise. More than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza He was killed in Israeli attacks, according to the Gaza health ministry. More than 16,500 children are involved.

Beyond the statistics, many young Americans also feel a connection to young Gazans. People around the world were horrified as they watched the murder of 19-year-old Shaban al-Dalou was burned alive Following an Israeli airstrike on a hospital complex in Deir al-Balah. However, young people also became a member of al-Dalou through social media. software engineering department He hoped to use his college degree to help his family and community. It was a resonant dream.

In other words, both the scale and intimacy of such horrors help explain why. 55% of Americans under 30 They say that what is happening in Gaza constitutes an event. genocide.

Of course, they also hear Israel’s explanations of its war strategy: Israel has the right to defend itself, Hamas militants hide among civilians and operate under schools, mosques and hospitals. But when they hear about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describe When they see Israeli soldiers, they see the war as “a conflict between barbarism and civilization” ostentatious abuses on social media and when they see Israel blocking aid trucks from reaching children dying of hungerThese explanations strain credibility.

Many younger Americans are also more likely to take risks than their older counterparts. oppose Billions of dollars of military aid sent by the USA to Israel. This is partly because they do not want tax revenues to be used for commitment purposes. human rights violations. This is partly because they see an urgent need for more investment here at home.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” summarizes the desire for a region where everyone can live in freedom, dignity and security.

Where do Jewish Israelis fit into this vision? Palestinians are divided on this issue. Recent polls show that for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an end to the occupation, the removal of settlements and the continued existence of a Palestinian state as in 1967 preferred outcome. Last July, all major Palestinian parties (including Hamas) A political framework was agreed upon HE reflects this vision. Others want Muslims, Christians and Jews to live together in equality between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. single democratic state, a confederation or any other arrangement.

But the question itself misses a larger point. This statement aims to draw attention to the fact that Palestinians do not have the freedom to live in their homeland with the safety, security and dignity they deserve.

Some object, pointing to the Arabic version of this statement, saying, “Palestine is Arab from water to water.” me and others to have explainedThe Arabic song in which the phrase originally appeared decades ago was a joyful expression for Palestinians, confirming that no matter how long they were exiled from their homes and no matter how many Arab villages were given Hebrew names, they still belonged to this land. and the land still belonged to them. This was, and still is, a response to the Zionist claim that Palestine was “a land without people for a landless people, that is, the Jewish people.”

Others say the phrase should be banned because it is used by Hamas, which the United States, the United Nations and the European Union designate as a terrorist organization. But when Hamas was founded in 1987, avoided He uses this expression because of its long-standing association with secular nationalism. Only in recent years did Hamas begin to adopt this expression. Simply labeling this as a “Hamas slogan” without acknowledging its broader use and deeper history is a dangerous and racist guilt-by-organization tactic used to demonize those who support Palestinian rights.

As more people learned the context and meaning of the phrase, calls for it to be banned diminished. Meta’s Supervisory Board recently reigned the sentence is not like that It definitely constitutes hate speech.. And the Nexus campus guide to defining antisemitism, written by scholars of Jewish and Israeli studies. concluded This context is crucial when evaluating its use.

Which brings us back to college campuses.

As the mother of a 14-year-old and an 11-year-old, I understand the urge to protect our children. But the primary purpose of a college education is to help young adults develop the skills they need to grow into resilient, compassionate adults. flood with university administrators coordinated emails Shutting down Palestinian perspectives on campus undermines this effort. It sends the message that our children are too weak or too stupid to hear different points of view and make their own decisions.

Colleges and universities across the country this fall brought new rules restricting campus speech and protest. Administrators I hope to avoid a repeat of last year’s protests and camps. However, I am one of the academics who is worried about the changes in new policies. suppressing students’ First Amendment rights And jeopardize their safety.

Bernie Steinberg, former longtime director of Harvard Hillel, put it well: wrote “It is possible to disagree with any part of what these activists say, but they should be allowed to speak safely and their morally serious positions should be given the respect they deserve,” he said of pro-Palestinian activists last December.

Looking ahead, we must work together to fight discrimination in all its forms, and we can only do this if we learn each other’s perspectives. community education center PARCEO It offers a variety of training including: antisemitism educationfrom the framework of collective liberation. UC Berkeley started A program that aims to encourage meaningful dialogue around Israel and Palestine. My own university encourages students to adopt this mindset:fearless investigation“and seeking unconventional perspectives and worldviews.

A few days after our initial exchange, the journalism student wrote back and told me that her mother had enjoyed listening to a song. podcast I explained the meaning and history of this sentence. I don’t know if he was convinced, but I’m glad he listened with curiosity and interest.

As we enter the second year of this brutal war, we could all do a little more.