Facebook allows use of the pro-Palestine slogan ‘From the river to the sea’

The Supervisory Board of Meta Group (parent company that includes Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) decided that the independent use of the phrase ‘From the river to the sea’, a slogan often posted by users in favour of Palestine, does not violate the company's content policies. 

The phrase ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ has been used as a phrase of support for the Palestinians especially since the beginning of the Gaza war, a bloody war that has left tens of thousands of people dead in Gaza territory and that arose as Israel's response to the harsh terrorist attacks perpetrated by the Palestinian Hamas movement against Israeli territory on 7 October, which left some 1,200 people dead and some 250 kidnapped. 

The use of this phrase has been rejected by many pro-Israel sectors who denounce ‘anti-Semitism’ against Israelis with slogans like this. 

The Content Oversight Board of the Meta Group, which includes Facebook, has given its approval for the use of the slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ on the grounds that it does not offend Israelis and can be used to publicly defend the Palestinians without inciting hatred and violence. 

Meta's supervisory board is the company's highest decision-making body on the content that can be displayed on the group's various social networks. It reviewed three cases involving Facebook posts containing the phrase that gained traction in the wake of the Gaza war and global protests against a war that is leaving tens of thousands dead in the Gaza Strip, stating that these three specific ‘content-related cases include contextual references to solidarity with Palestinians, but do not contain language that calls for violence or exclusion’.

The Council determined that the content did not violate Meta's rules on hate speech, violence and incitement or dangerous organisations or individuals, and should not result in the removal of the post from its platforms. 

‘In upholding Meta's decisions to uphold the content, the majority of the Board noted that the phrase has multiple meanings and is used by people in different ways and with different intentions,’ the Board noted, adding officially, ’The three cases specifically related to the content include contextual references to solidarity with Palestinians, but do not contain language calling for violence or exclusion.’ 

The phrase ‘From the river to the sea’ refers to a geographical area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, the latter areas disputed by Palestinians and Israelis. The river it refers to is the Jordan River, which forms the border in the south of the Dead Sea that separates Israel from Jordan, but also the West Bank from Jordan. Each of the two areas that make up the West Bank enclave is controlled by Israel in the south and the Palestinian Authority in the north. 

‘From the River to the Sea' is the territory that pro-Palestinians claim for the Palestinian Authority, i.e. a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which would occupy the entire area of present-day Israel and the part retained today by the Palestinian population. 

It is often used to express support for Palestinians gaining self-determination and equal rights, or to advocate a one-state solution to the conflict, with Jews and Palestinians as citizens of the same country. 

However, many Israelis and Jews interpret this phrase as a violent call against Israel. 

Meta's supervisory board said a minority of its members felt that, given the 7 October Hamas attacks that sparked the Gaza war, the use of the phrase in a post should be interpreted as a glorification of the Hamas movement and violence ‘unless there are clear indications to the contrary’. 

Social media posts became a major propaganda weapon after the outbreak of the Gaza War and have been used by both the Palestinian and Israeli sides to launch messages in favour of one side or the other. The Israeli side tried to use its strong influence on the West to influence the corporations that own the major social media platforms to remove content that incites violence and terrorism.

Some social media platforms have resorted to removing content or shutting down the accounts of users who do not respect content standards for posting and warnings of anti-Semitism, the enforcement of which has become stricter following the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October. 

But in this case, the Meta Supervisory Board, by a large majority, did not find the slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ problematic, deciding that this phrase does not serve to glorify Hamas and terrorist activity but only to support the Palestinians in a favourable light, without inciting hatred and violence.