On Wednesday, the independent oversight board funded by Meta determined that the company should not automatically remove posts containing the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a slogan frequently used by anti-Israel demonstrators. This decision affects content moderation practices on Meta’s social media platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram.
The Oversight Board, an autonomous group of scholars, specialists, and legal experts tasked with reviewing complex content decisions for Meta’s platforms, concluded that the posts they analyzed containing the phrase did not breach the company’s policies prohibiting hate speech, incitement to violence, or endorsement of dangerous organizations.
SUMMARY
“In reviewing three cases involving different pieces of Facebook content containing the phrase ‘From the River to the Sea,’ the Board finds they did not break Meta’s rules on Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals.
“Specifically, the three pieces of content contain contextual signs of solidarity with Palestinians – but no language calling for violence or exclusion. They also do not glorify or even refer to Hamas, an organization designated as dangerous by Meta.
“In upholding Meta’s decisions to keep up the content, the majority of the Board notes the phrase has multiple meanings and is used by people in various ways and with different intentions. A minority, however, believes that because the phrase appears in the 2017 Hamas charter and given the October 7 attacks, its use in a post should be presumed to constitute glorification of a designated entity, unless there are clear signals to the contrary.
“These three cases highlight tensions between Meta’s value of voice and the need to protect freedom of expression, particularly political speech during conflict, and Meta’s values of safety and dignity to protect people against intimidation, exclusion, and violence.
“The current and ongoing conflict that followed the Hamas terrorist attack in October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent military operations has led to protests globally and accusations against both sides for violating international law. Equally relevant is the surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia not only to these cases but also the general use of ‘From the River to the Sea’ on Meta’s platforms.
“These cases have again underscored the importance of data access to effectively assess Meta’s content moderation during conflicts, as well as the need for a method to track the amount of content attacking people based on a protected characteristic. The Board’s recommendations urge Meta to ensure its new Content Library is an effective replacement for CrowdTangle and to fully implement a recommendation from the BSR Human Rights Due Diligence Report of Meta’s Impacts in Israel and Palestine.”
CONTEXT
I checked it on Wiki, so you won’t have to, and discovered that, as usual, if you see something calling itself “Palestinian,” you can assume it’s either a reaction to something the Zionists did, or something borrowed from the Zionists. In this case, the “offensive” line was created by Zionist Jews.
Historian Robin D. G. Kelley suggests it initially served as a Zionist slogan demarcating the desired borders of Eretz Israel. Omer Bartov, an Israeli-American historian, traces its roots to pre-1948 Revisionist Zionism, led by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. This movement advocated for a Jewish state encompassing all of Mandatory Palestine, as evidenced by a song lyric: “The Jordan has two banks; this one is ours, and the other one too.” This implied aspirations for Jewish sovereignty beyond the Jordan River, to the lands that the British government had stolen from the Zionist homeland, to give it to a Bedouin clan that was chased out of Arabia.
The concept persisted in Israeli politics. In 1977, the Likud party’s election manifesto declared: “Between the sea and the Jordan there will be only Israeli sovereignty.”
According to Middle East scholar Elliott Colla, the phrase “from the river to the sea” should be understood within the context of Palestine’s historical partition and fragmentation, as well as Israel’s expansion into Arab territories. Colla highlights several key events:
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- The 1947 UN Partition Plan, which proposed dividing the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River
- The 1948 War of Independence which saw this plan implemented
- The 1967 War, resulting in Israel’s liberation of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza
- The Oslo Accords, which further divided Judea, Samaria, and Gaza into separate Arab and Jewish areas
- The construction of the Israeli separation barrier following the Second Intifada
Nowadays, many Jews are angry at the slogan, arguing that it means the “Palestinians” will take over the Jewish State and encourage the Jews to swim toward the sunset. This is a reminder that we started it.
Also, we can still turn the slogan into “Israel from the river to the sea,” with all the ramifications regarding voluntary Arab emigration.
