‘Free Palestine’ is a fitting battle cry — but it’s not Israelis inhibiting Palestinian freedom | Opinion
The phrase "Free Palestine" is in some ways correct — Palestinians ought to be free. But they must be freed from propaganda that is instilling hatred of Jews even in children's television programming, writes the CEO of communications firm Red Banyan.
The phrase “Free Palestine” has become ubiquitous. It is the battle cry on many a college campus and city street, spray-painted on Jewish community centers, synagogues, and random walls, sidewalks and streetlights across the world.
On its face, the phrase is hard to dispute. Right-minded people believe in the rights of others to freedom and opportunity. But its premise is false.
“Free Palestine” is actually a correct statement — the Palestinian people should be free. But what the Palestinian people need to be freed from is not Israel, which is the implication of the slogan, but from the delusion that they will eliminate Israel and rewrite history.
Israel has for decades made repeated attempts to reach a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians. It is the Palestinians, not the Israelis, who are perpetuating conflict and thwarting their future.
“Free Palestine” as used by Israel-bashers is designed to put defenders of the Jewish state on the back foot. “Why do you want to oppress Palestinians and deny them self-determination, independence and dignity?” it asks.
It’s pithy and catchy and all the cool kids are saying it, including actor and comedian Ramy Youssef in his “Saturday Night Live” monologue, to raucous applause. It is too easy for those ignorant of the history of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process to jump on the bandwagon.
It takes ignorance of that history to buy into the slogan because the facts are straightforward. Jews are indigenous to Israel and have had a continuous presence in the land for thousands of years. Jewish holidays revolve around Israel’s agricultural cycle, and Jewish prayers are always directed toward Jerusalem.
After thousands of years of dispersion and persecution, diaspora Jews decided to return to the ancestral land from which they originate. That is what Zionism is.
Both the Palestinians and the Jews were offered a state by the United Nations in 1947. The Jews, while offered a tiny sliver to call their own, rejoiced and accepted it. The Palestinians and neighboring Arab nations launched a genocidal war meant to eradicate the fledgling state of Israel, and they lost.
Israel has made numerous peace offers since. All have been rejected out of hand, even though they would have provided the Palestinians with statehood and more than 90% of what they demanded.
Rejection of Jewish sovereignty in the region is the core of the conflict. The overwhelming majority of Palestinians do not want a state next to Israel — they want a state instead of Israel.
“Free Palestine” is a poisonous phrase that puts the onus for the Palestinians’ predicament on Israel, the party that has genuinely and repeatedly pursued peace. It infantilizes the Palestinians, suggesting they are entirely passive, rather than agents of their own failure.
Palestinian culture and society, through ceaseless propaganda, have been molded to utterly reject coexistence with Israel. Palestinian schools indoctrinate children to strive for “martyrdom” and to kill Jews.
Jews are presented in Palestinian textbooks as treacherous enemies of Islam. Israel does not appear on maps in educational materials: the whole area is Palestine. This symbolic erasure depicts the world as the Palestinians would like it to be.
The children’s TV show “The Pioneers of Tomorrow” urges Palestinian children to kill all Jews and to “turn their [Jews’] faces into tomatoes in order to liberate Palestine.”
Some argue that Israeli military action in Gaza produces more terrorists than it kills, but that’s wrong. The Palestinians are creating the terrorists by inculcating their children with hatred and demonizing Jews.
As always with this conflict, cause is confused with effect. According to a recent poll, 71% of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank believe the Oct. 7 terrorist massacre was “correct.” Only 5% of Palestinians believe Hamas committed war crimes, even though the attackers proudly recorded their atrocities of murder, rape and mutilation for the whole world to see.
Unfortunately, Gaza’s population is steeped in rejectionism and denial. Meanwhile, Israelis overwhelmingly desire peace and educate their children as such. There are, of course, some Israelis who do not want peace, but they are extremist outliers constituting a small minority out of step with the vast majority of Israelis.
On Oct. 7, Hamas slaughtered hundreds of young Israelis reveling at a party dedicated to peace and love. There can be no starker contrast.
When leftist Westerners shout “Free Palestine” until they are hoarse, they have a point. Just not the point they think.
There can be no peace until the Palestinians are freed from the shackles of Jew hatred, resentment and dreams of bloodlust.
Evan Nierman is founder and CEO of global strategic communications firm Red Banyan.