UKLFI Charitable Trust (UKLFI CT) has responded to the Meta Oversight Board’s invitation to submit public comments on moderating the use of the phrase “From the River to the Sea”.

Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The Oversight Board was set up by Meta in 2020 to review particularly significant decisions on whether to remove content posted on these platforms.

In November 2023, three posts containing the phrase were shared on Facebook by different users and were reported to Meta for violating its Community Standards. All three posts were reviewed by Meta, which decided to leave them up, determining that it cannot conclude that the phrase constitutes a call for violence or exclusion of any particular group or that it is linked exclusively to support for Hamas.

Meta’s decision was appealed to the Oversight Board. On 7 May 2024, the Oversight Board selected the three cases for review and invited public comments from individuals and organisations on how Meta should moderate the use of the phrase given its antisemitic implications, as claimed by the users who submitted the cases to the Board.

In its public comment, UKLFI CT explained that the phrase “refers to attaining Palestinian control over the entire territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea; territory which encompasses the current Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as all of the territory comprising the modern State of Israel.”

It has been used as a rallying call for terrorist groups for decades, for instance by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was actively involved in the Second Intifada, and by Hamas, including in its 2017 Charter, where it calls for the “full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea” (art. 6).

The resurgence of the phrase on social media since 7 October 2023 make the link between the phrase and the dismantlement of the State of Israel clear. In this regard, UKLFI CT drew the Oversight Board’s attention to a Facebook group named “From the River to the Sea” which includes in its “About” section the “Dismantlement [of the] Apartheid State”, and which has shared posts denying that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, labelling the group’s operatives as freedom fights and denying the atrocities carried out on 7 October. Usage of the phrase online continues to accompany other calls for violence or encouragement or support for terrorist groups.

The European Court of Human Rights has dealt extensively with cases in which it has had to balance the freedom of expression with the right of people not to be subjected to discrimination. It has found, in cases where similar language or phrases were being used, that these “incited hatred”, exposed individuals to the “possible risk of physical violence” and went against the underlying values of the European Convention on Human Rights, including tolerance, social peace and non-discrimination. It has therefore found that penalties imposed on individuals using such language did not violate their freedom of expression.

UKLFI CT commented: “There are many other ways that individuals can express support for Palestine and Palestinians that does not imply violence against Jews or the eradication of their indigenous homeland. Supporting Palestinians and their rights should not be at the expense of the State of Israel or the Jewish people and should not require the removal of the State of Israel. Preventing people from using a phrase that is interpreted by the vast majority of people as calling for violence against Jewish people, contrary to the rights of Jewish people to be protected from hate speech and discrimination, does not prevent these people from expressing their support for Palestinians in other, lawful ways.”

Moreover, Meta’s own policies and governing rules are sufficiently broad to cover even statements “where the method of violence is not clearly articulated, but the threat is veiled or implicit, as shown by the combination of both a threat signal and contextual signal”, and that posts expressing a “desire to engage in violence against others in response to a grievance or threat that may be real, perceived or anticipated” where the“[l]ocal context or expertise confirms that the statement in question could lead to imminent violence”, should still be taken down. This includes statements advocating or supporting “expelling certain groups or saying they are not allowed” – precisely what is advocated for by the phrase “From the River to the Sea”.

Referencing a number of recent decisions by governments in the UK, US and elsewhere to censure the phrase or to designate it as an antisemitic and genocidal call, and Elon Musk’s recent decision to suspend users employing the phrase on X (formerly Twitter), UKLFI CT recommended that the Oversight Board overturn Meta’s decision with respect to the three cases and issue a policy recommendation to Meta that any future posts containing the phrase be removed.

UKLFI CT’s submission can be viewed HERE