Why chants like ‘Free Palestine,’ ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ and ‘From the river to the sea’ are divisive
As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, Southern Californians find that discussions about it can get heated quickly based on how people intend or receive some key terms.
From school campuses to public protests, tensions surrounding the longstanding conflict in the Middle East have escalated since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and the Jewish nation’s ensuing military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Even oceans away, the U.S. and Southern California have become a battleground for white-hot debate — with some even turning into violence — on all sides. Reports of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have ramped up nationwide since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which has already killed thousands.
One thing that unites pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, and even those who seek peace for all involved demonstrations are the chants – generally used as call-and-response anthems.
Phrases like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Am Yisrael Chai” – Hebrew for “the people of Israel live” – are often heard echoing at rallies and protests on all sides, where people are gathered together with those who have common ground, expressing the desire for freedom.
But such roiling chants can be seen as controversial, even divisive – depending on who is saying or hearing them.
Ella Ben-Hagai, a social psychologist and associate professor at Cal State Fullerton who has long researched the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said that she’s “never seen such levels of polarization” on school campuses or online.
“These phrases replicate some of the very polarizing language that we’re seeing on social media. People chant them sometimes without knowing what they really mean… and the truth is only one truth,” said Ben-Hagai, who is Israeli. “For one side, somebody is a liberation fighter, and for the other side, that same person is a terrorist.”
Ben-Hagai said that the messages in chants often have to be “super-simplified” in order to be shared on social media, or for people to shout aloud and express.
“Because it’s so simple, then (these phrases) are more likely to not actually allow for the complexity people want — especially if it’s the people you don’t agree with. The more people see one narrative, the more extreme they can become,” she said.
Freedom songs, spirituals and protest chants are often used as political anthems and odes to freedom in the face of oppression, often created and expressed by people in struggle, or celebrating liberation, researchers say.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” refers to the territory between the 200-plus-mile-long Jordan River, on the eastern part of Israel and the occupied West Bank, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The phrase has been used for decades in pro-Palestine liberation movements, and many activists say it’s a call for independence, a “free Palestine” after over seven decades of Israeli statehood.
More recently, many Jews have deemed it as antisemitic, hearing a clear call for Israel’s destruction.
Meanwhile, “Am Yisrael Chai” is part of a traditional Jewish song often sung at summer camps, schools, Shabbat tables and at times in synagogues. Many rabbis and leaders have called it an anthem of triumph, a rebirth of Jewish life after centuries of oppression and the Holocaust.
Peter Levi, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County/Long Beach, said the message of “Am Yisrael Chai” is clear: “Despite the murder and terrorism, the Jewish people still live.”
“Typically thought of as celebrating the great spirit of the Jewish people, an ancient people 3,600 years old, and that are still around and thriving despite being made refugees from our ancestral homeland,” Levi said. “The Jewish people journeyed all over the world living in other people’s lands; persecuted, oppressed, murdered and over 800 times kicked out of the lands they were living in. And yet, we are still here.”
But in the past five weeks since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, both impassioned chants, among others, have been known to cause division – and even have consequences.
“If you look at the map between the Jordan River and the Meditteranean Sea, for many, saying ‘from the river to the sea’ is like saying Israel shouldn’t be there,” said Scott Spitzer, an associate professor of political science at Cal State Fullerton. “But I doubt that most people are saying they want to get rid of Israel. And I doubt that people saying ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ want to bomb Gaza – I think they want to support Israel, for Israel to be OK.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) – the only Palestinian American in Congress, and one of two Muslim women in the House of Representatives – defended “From the river to the sea” in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Nov. 3, following a video calling out President Joe Biden and supporting a ceasefire in the region. Last week, Tlaib was censured after she accused Republicans of trying to silence differing views about the ongoing conflict.
“From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” Tlaib wrote on social media.
In the suspension letter to the student’s parents, officials said the student reportedly said “Free Palestine” to a classmate. Social media posts detailed previous tensions involving the student and others at Corona del Mar Middle and High School in Newport Beach. The school was the site of vandalism last month after swastikas were drawn on a locker.
A protest planned after classes on Monday, Nov. 13 was canceled by the student’s family.
In a school board meeting Tuesday, Nov. 14, Newport-Mesa Unified Superintendent Wesley Smith did not go into details about what happened but he repeatedly made clear that the district does not consider “Free Palestine” to be hate speech.
In a statement earlier Tuesday, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, condemned the suspension, calling it part of an “alarming trend” in which Arab, Muslim and Palestinian American students “particularly those expressing solidarity with Palestine, are unfairly targeted, silenced, harassed, and dehumanized for their political views.”
“This one-sided approach perpetuates Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian sentiment, creating an adverse climate for American Muslim, Arab American, and Palestinian American students and putting them at risk of unlawful and unfair bullying and harassment from teachers and administrators,” Ayloush said, adding that the school’s actions “potentially violated the student’s free speech rights,” and “seemingly targeted the boy for selective punishment given his national origin and ethnicity. The actions of the school and district are especially concerning, given that reports allege that the suspended student was responding to constant bullying and being called a ‘terrorist’ by another student because of his national origin.”
The organization sent a letter to Newport-Mesa officials urging them to investigate claims of bullying against the suspended student.
Ben-Hagai, the social psychologist, said that the suspension felt “ignorant” on the school district’s part. She called for the “need to allow for differences in perspectives” in the classroom, and that educators should “approach students’ positions with empathy; encourage dialogue.”
“I think right now they’re not encouraging dialogue; they’re just letting everything be free speech. so a lot of it that floats around is very offensive speech from social media,” she said.
Ben-Hagai also pointed out that what makes this current conflict “escalated” is that more people are drawing links to the modern racial justice movement that has emerged since the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Tensions can heighten – and people act out – when they are faced with scenes, and emotions, that they don’t understand.
“We are seeing our biggest nightmare – so when we are confronted by horrible images that create a lot of anxiety, anger is the easier feeling to have,” she said.
Having group affiliations – and even faith – can help people find meaning in times of great trauma, and “cling to one another.” Arabs, Muslim Americans and Jews say that these chants help them to feel united to the cause.
Rashad Al-Dabbagh, the founder and executive director of the Anaheim-based Arab American Civic Council, said in a statement that that “Free Palestine” is used “every day” as a call for freedom “when Israel builds illegal settlements on stolen land … when Israel launches airstrikes on civilians in Gaza … when Palestinian families are dehumanized at checkpoints … when Palestinian Americans are dehumanized at Israeli airports… when American politicians are bullied by Israel lobbyists … when Palestinian Americans students are suspended for saying ‘Free Palestine’ … and the list goes on.”
Al-Dabbagh called the Corona del Mar student suspension “un-American,” claiming that a “student should not be punished for speaking out for the humanity of his people.”
Professors Spitzer and Ben-Hagai led a recent panel discussion at Cal State Fullerton to discuss the historical context of the Mideast conflict. Both faculty agreed that while it’s good that more young people are engaged with the world, the problem lies in how things are communicated amid short-form, fast-paced platforms, like social media, and “heightened, intense political rhetoric.”
Spitzer said that hearing controversial, triggering phrases – like “from the river to the sea” – can cause people to respond, “to say, ‘We’re not going anywhere.’”
“There’s a sense that people feel powerless; they’re emotionally connected,” he said. “Maybe they don’t know the whole context, but they want to do something – and these slogans provide a unifying way that people can jump on a collective, rallying cry.”
Staff reporter Annika Bahnsen, Hanna Kang and The Associated Press contributed to this report.