Intifada and From the River to the Sea
Accusation: Chants like “From the river to the sea” and “Globalize the intifada” are defended as peaceful calls for Palestinian freedom and equality.
The Short Answer
The river is the Jordan and the sea is the Mediterranean. Between them lies all of Israel. The slogan calls for a Palestinian state in place of Israel, and Hamas uses the same words in its own documents.
Intifada means uprising, and the Second Intifada brought suicide bombings that murdered more than 1,000 Israelis. Neither chant is a call for peace.
What From the River to the Sea Means
Look at a map. The Jordan River is Israel's eastern border and the Mediterranean Sea is its western coast. A Palestine from the river to the sea is a Palestine with no Israel in it.
The slogan was used by Palestinian groups in the 1960s, before there were any settlements in Judea and Samaria. Hamas wrote it into its 2017 document of principles, which calls for the liberation of all of Palestine from the river to the sea.
Ask the people chanting it a simple question: where would the seven million Jews of Israel live? The answer tells you what the slogan really means.
What Intifada Means
Intifada is the Arabic word for uprising or shaking off. In the context of Israel, it refers to two waves of Palestinian violence against Israelis.
The First Intifada began in 1987. It included stone throwing, firebombs and stabbings, as well as the killing of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.
The Second Intifada began in 2000, right after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected a peace offer at Camp David that included a Palestinian state. It brought a wave of suicide bombings to buses, cafes and restaurants.
The Victims of the Intifada
More than 1,000 Israelis were murdered in the Second Intifada. Fifteen people, including children, were killed at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem in 2001. Twenty one people, most of them teenagers, were murdered outside the Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv.
On Passover night in 2002, a suicide bomber killed thirty people at the Park Hotel in Netanya as they sat down for the seder. When protesters chant for an intifada, this is what they are calling for.
Globalize the Intifada
“Globalize the intifada” means bringing that violence to the rest of the world. In 2025 two young Israeli embassy staff members were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, and Jews were firebombed at a peaceful march in Boulder, Colorado.
Those who chant these slogans may not all intend violence. But words that celebrate terror give cover to those who carry it out. Read more: Antisemitic Myths Debunked
Key Facts
The river is the Jordan and the sea is the Mediterranean. All of Israel lies between them.
Hamas uses the phrase in its own 2017 document of principles.
Intifada means uprising and refers to two waves of terror against Israelis.
More than 1,000 Israelis were killed in the Second Intifada, many by suicide bombers.
Calls to globalize the intifada have been followed by deadly attacks on Jews abroad.
How to Respond
Ask: “If Palestine stretches from the river to the sea, where do the Jews go?”
Name the victims of the intifada so people understand what the word means to Israelis.
Point out that Hamas, a terrorist group, uses the very same slogan.
Ask those who want peace to choose words that include both peoples.
Conclusion
These slogans are not poetry about freedom. They are calls to erase the Jewish state and to bring back the terror of bombed buses and cafes. Anyone who truly wants peace should stop chanting them.