Free Palestine: The “Free Palestine” movement advocates for a free and liberated Palestine, which includes all people, including Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze and residents of all religions and ethnicities. It hopes to create a truly democratic state in which self-determination and human rights are available for everyone. The Free Palestine Movement was born from the Nakba of 1948, the forcible displacement of most of the predominantly Arab population in Palestine and when the newly created Zionist State of Israel launched a complete military occupation of Palesine barring any of the displaced Palestinians from returning.
"But Hamas": The use of “But Hamas” and its political and military goals to justify the oppression of Palestinian people as a whole, by the “Israeli” military occupation ignores the context of the 75-year occupation of Palestine. The root aggression comes from the militarized Zionist movement itself, not the people it oppresses. The military occupation of Palestine and the apartheid system it has created goes back many decades before Hamas (established in 1987) existed and it will continue with or without Hamas unless we and other advocates for human rights around the world stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and actively work towards its liberation.
War Crimes and Ethnic Cleansing: The modern state of "Israel" was founded on genocide, a colonial occupation, formed against the will of the Indigenous people of Palestine, and against the backdrop of zionist terrorist organizations committing massacres and driving out 750,000 Indigenous Palestinians in 1948. We are against religious ethno-nationalism of all forms, anywhere, and believe that any state that is founded on exclusionary policies based on religion, race or ethnicity will lead to oppression. As per many rulings by UN and international courts, settlers who have committed war crimes must be tried, and all Palestinians expelled be granted the Right of Return.
Jews Are Not a Monolith: Being Jewish does not make one from the Middle East. Jewish Palestinians are from Palestine. Jewish Russians are from Russia. Jewish Hungarians are from Hungary. It is a fundamental fallacy that because the Jewish religion came from Palestine thousands of years ago, that all people who identify as Jewish have an ancestral link to Palestine. The Christian religion also came from Palestine, and it would be absurd to consider that all people who identify as Christian come from Palestine.
Is “From the River to the Sea” an Antisemitic Call to Expel Jewish People from Palestine?: Absolutely not. It is calling for complete freedom for all people of all nationalities, ethnic identifications and races in Palestine, not divided into tiny pockets of segregated populations, but across the entire land, from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, from Lebanon to Egypt. The term was actually first used by the Israeli Likud party as a genocidal call to expel or exterminate all "Arabs" to establish a Jewish-supremacist ethnostate.
Where Do I Fit in With the Free Palestine Movement?: There is a place for everyone in the movement for Palestinian liberation, including Jews, no matter where you are from. It is important for all people to call for an end to the occupation and the apartheid state for the sake of global humanity, the right of return of all Palestinians expelled under the occupation regime and be on the front lines of a wholesale change in the way their community confronts power, violence and oppression in Palestine and the entire world.
Am I Next?: You very well might be and eventually likely will be.
Please leave a comment below if you are on board with the Free Palestine Movement ↓
