The pro-Palestinian slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is anti-Semitic because it carries a specific historical connotation that evokes “pain and existential fears” among Jews, according to Harvard University President Claudine Gay.
“Antisemitism has no place at Harvard,” Ms. Gay wrote on Thursday in a letter reporting on the latest steps the Ivy League school has taken to confront “harassment and marginalization” of Jewish members of the campus community.
According to Ms. Gay, an “Antisemitism Advisory Group” consisting of Jewish faculty, alumni, students, and community leaders has started studying “how antisemitism manifests” at Harvard and crafting a plan that “addresses its complex history.”
As part of the plan, the university will be implementing an “education and training program” for students, faculty, and staff on anti-Semitism at Harvard and more broadly. This program, said Ms. Gay, will help everyone “better recognize antisemitism in daily life and interrupt its harmful influence” by discussing “the roots of certain rhetoric that has been heard on our campus in recent weeks.”
As an example, she pointed to the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a chant that rang at pro-Palestinian rallies and demonstrations around the world, including those held on American colleges campuses, over the weeks since the Israel–Hamas war broke out.
While those sympathetic to the Palestinian nationalist cause argue that this expression denotes no more than a wish for Palestinian freedom, many others see it as equivalent to calling for the annihilation of Jewish people from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which covers all of Israel.
“Our community must understand that phrases such as ‘from the river to the sea’ bear specific historical meanings that to a great many people imply the eradication of Jews from Israel and engender both pain and existential fears within our Jewish community,” Ms. Gay said in Thursday’s letter.
“I condemn this phrase and any similarly hurtful phrases,” she wrote.
The letter comes after more than 30 Harvard student organizations put out a statement blaming Israel for the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists. The student groups drew intense backlash both within and outside Harvard, including from prominent alumni such as former U.S. Secretary of Treasury Larry Summers and billionaire donor Bill Ackman.
Mr. Ackman, the founder of multi-billion-dollar hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, asked the university to release a list of the names of students affiliated to groups that co-signed the anti-Israel statement, a demand Ms. Gay rejected.
Congresswoman Censured over “From the River to the Sea”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only member of Congress who is of Palestinian ancestry, has been punished over her comments about the Middle Eastern war.Among the comments in question is a video Ms. Tlaib shared on X that features the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” she said. “My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.”
Many of her congressional colleagues, however, disagreed with such interpretation. In a 234–188 vote, the House on Tuesday passed a resolution to censure Ms. Tlaib for “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
Censure is a procedure meant to discipline legislators for their behavior and put it in the public record. It is essentially a form of humiliation, in which the Speaker of the House reads out the formal disapproval of a specific lawmaker.
Twenty-two Democrats joined Republicans to vote in favor of the censure measure, which was filed by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.).
“If this is not worthy of censure, what is?” asked Mr. McCormick on the House floor. “When you can call for the annihilation of a country and its people, if that’s not worthy of a censure, what is?”
“My grandmother, like all Palestinians, just wants to live her life with freedom and human dignity we all deserve,” the congresswoman responded.
An earlier censure measure, filed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), didn’t pass the lower chamber after 23 Republicans voted against it. Some of them took issue with language in the bill alleging that Ms. Tlaib led an “insurrection” during an Oct. 18 protest by hundreds of anti-Israeli activists at the U.S. Capitol, apparently drawing comparisons to the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally that was also labeled as such by Democrats.
Mr. McCormick’s resolution does not contain such language.
