Many of the anti-Israel protestors who have been waving banners and chanting From The River To The Sea across the US may have had no clue about what it actually means.
That view is based on a survey of 250 American college students undertaken by Political Science Professor Ron E. Hassner from the strongly left-wing University of California, Berkeley. He outlined its findings in a Wall Street Journal article.
More than 86% of the students initially supported the anti-Semitic slogan — 33% enthusiastically so, 53% to a lesser extent. Many were unaware that the chant was considered threatening and racist. Progressive students still supported it despite their alleged sensitivity to offensive speech.
Less than half (47%) of the US students were able to name the actual river and sea as the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Less than a quarter knew who Yasser Arafat was — some even thought he was the first prime minister of Israel — and around the same proportion were unaware of the Oslo Accords peace agreement.
Many didn’t realise Israel could not exist if a Palestinian state took up all the land between the river and the sea. They were unaware there was no room for two states. They also didn’t know it would displace nine million people including more than two million Arab Israelis and that both Israeli and Palestinian governments were firmly opposed to sharing a single state.
When confronted with these facts, two thirds of the students surveyed changed their minds about supporting the From The River To The Sea slogan.
Professor Hassner wryly observed: “There’s no shame in being ignorant, unless one is screaming for the extermination of millions.” He concluded his article: “Those who hope to encourage extremism depend on the political ignorance of their audiences. It is time for good teachers to join the fray and combat bias with education.”
