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Anti-Hate Groups Blast Meta Oversight Board for Declaring ‘From the River to the Sea’ Not Hate Speech, Incitement
Anti-Israel protesters hold a banner that says, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” standing in front of the president’s palace in Warsaw, Poland, on Nov. 5, 2023. Photo: IMAGO/Marek Antoni Iwanczuk via Reuters Connect
The oversight board for Facebook’s parent company announced on Wednesday that the anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not hate speech or a call for violence, leading to outrage from groups dedicated to combating antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.
Meta’s board posted on its official website that the popular rallying cry for anti-Israel activists did not break Meta’s “rules on Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals” and therefore should not lead to content removal.
Specifically, Meta said it considered three separate uses of the phrase in Facebook posts and found they “contain contextual signs of solidarity with Palestinians — but no language calling for violence or exclusion.” The board added that the three cases did not “glorify or even refer to Hamas,” the Palestinian terrorist group that rules Gaza and is designated as “dangerous” by Meta.
“In upholding Meta’s decisions to keep up the content, the majority of the board notes the phrase has multiple meanings and is used by people in various ways and with different intentions,” the announcement stated. “A minority, however, believes that because the phrase appears in the 2017 Hamas charter and given the October 7 attacks, its use in a post should be presumed to constitute glorification of a designated entity, unless there are clear signals to the contrary.”
Despite Meta’s conclusion, many observers have argued that the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Some Jewish and anti-hate groups lambasted Meta for its decision, arguing that the rallying cry is a form of incitement and presents an implied call for violence against Jews and Israelis.
The Anti-Defamation League, for example, rejected the company’s “short-sighted decision,” arguing the phrase “calls to dismantle Israel, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland.”
“‘From the river to the sea’” is an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination,” the ADL posted on X/Twitter. “This rallying cry, enshrined in the charter of Hamas, has long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations like Hamas and PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine], which seek Israel’s destruction through violent means.”
The ADL concluded, “Usage of this phrase has the effect of making members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community feel unsafe and ostracized, and we call on Meta to recognize the harm this phrase poses to Jewish communities worldwide. This decision continues the pattern of supreme indifference to online hate and harassment that has long been the hallmark of Meta’s leadership.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) expressed similar sentiments on Wednesday.
“‘From the River to the Sea’ is a slogan created with the sole vision of destroying the national homeland of the Jewish people,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman said in a statement. “It is genocidal in intent and meaning, and is not a legitimate political or ideological vision, because it targets the one Jewish state and its inhabitants for destruction.”
Roytman went on to argue that the Meta board “appears to have special rules for Jews and the Jewish state because they seem to always come down on the side of antisemites and give them a benefit of the doubt that they would dare not give any other racist or hate group. They have given a green light for incitement to genocide.”
The oversight board’s decision came after Meta in July removed its ban on the use of the Arabic word “shaheed,” or “martyr” in English, after a year-long review.
That same month, Meta announced an update to its moderation policy regarding posts that use the word “Zionists” as a proxy to target Jews or Israelis in hate speech. Meta said it would begin removing posts that use “Zionists” to refer to Jews and Israelis in harmful and derogatory ways.
The post Anti-Hate Groups Blast Meta Oversight Board for Declaring ‘From the River to the Sea’ Not Hate Speech, Incitement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.