this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026
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It doesn't, any more than "from the river to the sea".
The only way you can think "river to sea" slogan implies genociding the Israeli occupiers is if you can't possibly imagine any other way to transfer ownership than brutal imperialistic colonizer-like expansion. You know, like what Israelis are currently doing to Palestinians.
Framing it as "you're calling for genocide" is just another way zionists try to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
It seems to me like people like this are telling on themselves that they're stuck in Colonial/imperial mindsets and lack imagination.
In the 1960s and 70s it became the signature phrase of the Palestine Liberation Organization to indicate the replacement of the State of Israel with a State of Palestine extending “from the river to the sea,” including the expulsion of Jews.
Hamas have since called for the expulsion of all Jews.
Hamas proclaims it in its 1988 founding, charter document, The Hamas Covenant. The second paragraph declares to all the world that, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” The introduction section promises “[o]ur struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious” and will only end when “the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realized,”
https://www.palquest.org/en/historictext/16211/palestine-national-council-5th-session-political-statement
It refers to genociding the Jews to get back the area. Technically it doesn't, like saying 'all lives matter' isn't technically anti-black, but it is. Wearing a swastika might mean you support the Hindu notion of well-being, but it doesn't.
Symbols have meaning and hiding behind technicalities allows dog whistling and regressive behavior.
Yes, Israel is abhorrent in its actions in Gaza, and a form of shared peaceful cohabitation in the area would be ideal. But allowing slogans that are known to represent genocide, doesn't help.
https://decolonizepalestine.com/myth/from-the-river-to-the-sea-is-a-call-to-genocide/
Sure. But at some point the symbol takes on a new meaning. No one (in the west) is wearing a hindu peace symbol, thats no longer the intent/meaning of that symbol.
And I'd say 99% of people in Australia saying river to the sea aren't supporting the original intent of the Hamas documents and ideals.
They know the connotation. They are supporting Hamas. If they had an aversion to supporting Hamas, they'd steer clear of it. It's clear dog whistling.
I didn't see any anti Hamas sentiment at the Harbour Bridge march.