Court Ruling: “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” is not illegal; is protected speech

In November, IN Germany, Berlin criminalizes slogan 'From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free'. In the US, Congress held hearings and accused university leaders of turning a blind eye towards slogans that call for genocide, referring to the slogan, "From the river to the sea, Palestinian will be free", used by students who protested what they called the genocidal war in Gaza. Now courts are holding that such slogans are protected free speech, and clarified that it is not calling for a genocide since it is meant to advocate for an environment where everyone in the area between the River and the Sea to be free--free from the apartheid rule of Zionism that discriminates against non-Jews.

The court of Mannheim in Germany rules after two appeals that “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” is not an illegal usage of terrorist slogans as it is widely used among Palestinians.

The court points out that the phrase historically meant “the foundation of a secular democratic and egalitarian state in the whole of Palestine, in which Jews should experience full equality, but without the privileges of Zionism.”

Phrases such as "From the river to the sea, Palestinian will be free", "Child murderer Israel" and "Stop the genocide in Gaza" can be expressed in the country during pro-Palestinian rallies, after freedoms activists won two court cases filed in Munster and Cologne.

According to the Cologne court's decision, the judge reiterated that criticism of the Israeli state is "protected by freedom of expression", stressing that the slogans are "directed against Israel & not against the Jewish population of Germany", which resulted in the rejection of "inflammatory allegations of antisemitism".