What Does “Free Palestine” Mean?

Political slogans are meant to communicate. That is why they should be short, punchy and to the point. They definitely should not be long-winded or confusing.

This is why “I Like Ike” was a better slogan than “Lookit. This Eisenhower guy, he’s not terrible. True, he looks like his head is shrunken, and who knows if “shrunken” is even a word, but how bad could he be, really?”. These were the actual two finalists. Think of how different history would have been if the “Lookit” camp had prevailed.

But while you certainly don’t want to say too much in a slogan, you really don’t want to say too little either. You don’t want the slogan which is meant to encapsulate your cause, to leave people scratching their heads. Unless of course your cause is encouraging the scratching of more body parts.

This is the problem with what has lately become the go-to slogan of choice for supporters of the Palestinians: “Free Palestine!”

At this point it is worth a brief diversion to just fully disclose my position on this conflict, which I have written on a good bit.

I support Israel’s right to exist and to defend themselves and I don’t believe that Hamas can be allowed to remain in power to continue to threaten and attack Israel. That said, I am not a fan of Benjamin Netanyahu and I think some of the actions he has taken are heavy-handed, unnecessary and even counter-productive. I also support the eventual establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state and an aggressive international effort to help the Palestinian people build that state.

All of that said, I am unclear on what Free Palestine! actually means.

When the current conflict exploded following the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7th, the most commonly heard slogan at pro-Palestinian protests was “From the River to the Sea!”. But after an shockingly high percentage of those chanting the slogan couldn’t identify which river or sea they were talking about, that rallying cry became somewhat of an embarassment.

Also, since, geographically speaking, “From the River to the Sea!” doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for Israel to exist at all, it came to be seen as a bit too extreme for winning-over-converts purposes.

Hence, “Free Palestine!”. However, not to be an insufferable nit-picker, but that slogan doesn’t make a lot of sense either.

First, historically, when people chant that a place should be free, that place usually already exists as an independent country with it’s own, generally repressive government. The chanters are generally calling for the overthrow of a represive regime that is internally repressing the people.

“Free South Africa!” would be a good example. The rulers of South Africa were mistreating their own people. Using this phrase to take sides in a dispute between different countries becomes is a bit muddled.

It’s like if the people of Ukraine were chanting “Free Ukraine”. Ukraine is free. They are fighting the Russians, no doubt. But Zelensky isn’t imprisoning the Ukrainian people. It just doesn’t jell.

The Palestinian people ARE being oppressed internally, by Hamas, which throws unbelievers, political opponents, and gay people off of tall buildings (or short buildings many times, with the same result), and treats women like cattle. But one doesn’t get the sense that this is what the people chanting “Free Palestine!” in the Boston Commons or Ann Arbor Michigan are talking about.

Also, putting aside the repression by Hamas, the Palestinans in Gaza WERE free, at least in relation to Israel. Israel was not governing or occupying them. There had not been one, single Israeli troop in Gaza prior to October 7th. There wasn’t even a single Jew, because such a Jew would have been killed, a big problem that someone should talk about at some point.

Some argue that Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza, which is in part true. This, largely due to the fact that Hamas was diverting virtually everything that entered Gaza into military assets to murder Israelis. If Hamas was your neighbor, you’d blockade them too.

But was Israel’s blockade of Gaza effective?

Well, Egypt also has a border with Gaza which Israel did not control. Also, ask yourself, if the Gaza blockade was so airtight, how did Hamas somehow acquire tens of thousands of missiles, hundreds of thousands of military weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition, not to mention all the materials to build hundreds of miles of underground tunnels to launch attacks on Israel with? Maybe Hamas could have used some of their obvious smuggling abilities to make the lives of ordinary Palestinians better.

In any event, this all leads back to the basic question. What does “Free Palestine!” mean? If Israel disappeared tomorrow, The Palestinian people would still not be free. So obviously the slogan is meant to define Palestine’s relationship to Israel.

Do those chanting this phrase over and over again mean “Let’s overthrow Hamas and let the Palestinian people live in peace with their neighbors”? Does they mean “Let’s eliminate Israel”? Is it a call for a two-state solution with both Israel and Palestine having secure borders? What exactly is Israel’s role in a world with a “free Palestine” as those chanting this slogan envision it?

I honestly don’t know the answer to these questions. I suspect the true intent of the slogan varies widely between the various people chanting it. But to the extent that the slogan is designed to rally public support for the cause, I think it’s really important for the true meaning of that slogan to be made clear.