To: Les H who wrote (44978 ) 2/15/2025 9:28:53 AM From: Les H Respond to For Israelis, 'From the River to the Sea' Is a Reality. For Palestinians, It's a CrimeIt is nonsensical, and hypocritical, to arrest or accuse Palestinians of promoting the ideology of 'From the river to the sea,' while in Israel, school maps don't show the Green Line and the government is advancing full annexation Haaretz Apparently this needs to be said again: Israeli Jews are the last people on Earth who can complain about Palestinian longing for the land from the river to the sea. The State of Israel is the mother of "river to the sea" – using graphic rather than geographic language. It is nearly impossible to find a map in any public space in Israel today, from official maps to public art and iconography, showing the Green Line that would delineate a hypothetical Palestinian state. Maps in Israel show the whole land, undivided – in effect, erasing Palestinian political and national identity. A private collection of snapshots I've taken around the country or captured from the internet tells a story as clearly as a coloring book: a Judaica shop down the block in Tel Aviv has a blue-glass standing object for your coffee table shaped like the map of Eretz Israel – no Green Line blemish. A charging stand for electric cars in Haifa displays a map of its stations spread generously throughout the Land of Israel – a single unit from the river to the sea (thanks to my partners in this project who snapped the shot). Every day, the newspapers print weather maps of the whole land, absent any Palestine ( Haaretz is a lone exception ). In Hostage Square in central Tel Aviv, citizens have filled the place with art, including a triptych of visual images in which the middle pillar bears drawings of families hugging children in the shape of the whole territory of British Mandatory Palestine. The list and the photos go on. As for inciting children about river to sea: This is the time to recall that Israeli public schools are practically barred from using maps showing the Green Line – no Palestine there either. Israel's river-to-sea is not just the lucky kid who gets the coloring book, but every kid in an Israeli school. It is nonsensical to arrest or even accuse Palestinians of using the term without mentioning that Israelis live out their own river to sea, every day. Outsiders: If you didn't realize that Israelis view the world through Mandate Palestine-shaped glasses – check your basic understanding of the society you claim to be fighting for. It's better than exposing yourself as a hypocrite or a liar.
