To the Editor:

In his July 11 letter to the editor [“The silence is deafening?”], Mike Moak asked, “So did I miss something?”

He believes the phrase “From the river to the sea” is “the call for the genocide of the Jews and the elimination of the nation of Israel” because the “phrase is in the Hamas charter and has been a common battle cry among anti-Israel protesters throughout the world” including in the United States.

“From the river to the sea” is one half of a phrase I have heard and said many times myself. I do not support Hamas and never have.

Hamas does not own the phrase any more than Republicans own the United States flag. I have heard second halves of the phrase, including: “Palestine will be free.” My favorites are: “all the people will be free” and “all the children will live free.”

I know many Palestinians and Jews who use the chant. Between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan, Palestinians live under varying levels of repression.

Within the 1949 to 1967 borders of Israel, they are widely discriminated against and are at best second-class citizens. In what remains of the Palestinian West Bank, they have endured more than a half-century of Israeli military occupation and martial law.

Tens of thousands of homes have been demolished by the Israeli government, and today, Zionist settlers terrorize Palestinians into fleeing their villages. In Gaza, they endured 16 years (from 2007 to 2023) of Israeli siege, and repeated intense Israeli invasions and bombing campaigns that killed thousands prior to Oct. 7.

When Palestinians and their supporters say, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” we mean exactly what we say: Palestinians will someday, hopefully soon, live as free people in their own homeland.

Rather than focusing on a phrase with many variations and interpretations, Americans should try to stop the ongoing Israeli-U.S. genocide in Gaza that has killed at least 40,000 and probably several times as many people (according to The Lancet medical journal).

Mr. Moak asserted that those who use the phrase “From the river …” are “dimwits” who “couldn’t begin to name the river or the sea.” That is not my experience.

I have attended dozens of pro-ceasefire-pro-Palestinian vigils and protests since October and many before then; most of the protesters are very well informed about the geography of Palestine/Israel and many are Jews. I have rarely heard any support for Hamas and only once hatred of Jews.

Mr. Moak wrote about how “vile” the hatred of Hamas is. “They hate Jews. They hate women. They hate gays. They hate all non-Muslims.” He wants us to think that Hamas was and is exceptionally barbaric. 

Israeli depravity is at least as horrific as Hamas at its worst and occurs far more often and on an enormously greater scale. Since Oct. 7, Israel has killed hundreds of times as many Palestinian children as Hamas killed Israeli children on and since Oct. 7.

Via their ethnic cleansings, Israeli leaders have turned Palestinians into their enemies. Let’s acknowledge atrocities and hatreds, and get serious about resolving this conflict. Nearly the entire world is willing to assist any sincere efforts toward reconciliation, justice, and peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Peace will come when Israeli leaders recognize the humanity and equal rights of Palestinins, other Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and non-religious people. Granting equal rights to all residents of historic Palestine and Israel is the way to peace.

Tom Ellis

Albany