FAQ Palestine

The “Free Palestine” movement advocates for a free and liberated Palestine, which includes all people, including Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze and residents of all religions and ethnicities. It hopes to create a truly democratic state in which self-determination and human rights are available for everyone.

Our advocacy for a Free Palestine is rooted in a desire to see the Palestinian people liberated from expulsion, occupation and oppression of all kinds, not antisemitism. While we recognize our Jewish community’s concerns over the rise in antisemitism abroad as valid, we know that this movement is not in opposition to concerns over anti-Jewish violence — on the contrary, it aligns and intersects with the fight against that violence. We believe a liberated Palestine, free from apartheid and occupation, will make the region and the world safer for everyone living there, especially Palestinian Christians, Muslims and Druze who have been brutally oppressed for generations.

We speak not only as Palestinians but as advocates for justice and human rights. We stand in solidarity not only with Palestinians fighting for their rights and self determination but with all people across the world who are standing up against oppression in its many forms.

We receive frequently asked questions regarding the Free Palestine liberation movement:

Q: “But Hamas”

A: The use of “But Hamas” and its political and military goals to justify the oppression of Palestinian people as a whole, by the “Israeli” military occupation ignores the context of the 75-year occupation of Palestine. The root aggression, what our focus should be on, comes from the militarized Zionist movement itself, not the people it oppresses. Hamas is a relatively recent response to the systemic violence the Palestinian people have experienced for over three quarters of a century. The military occupation of Palestine and the apartheid system it has created goes back generations before Hamas, therefore it is reasonable to believe that it will continue with or without Hamas unless we and other advocates for human rights around the world stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and actively work towards its liberation.

Q: Is “Free Palestine” Antisemitic?

A: No. First, antisemitism is a distinctly European cultural trait that has no historical equivalent in the Levant or SWANA regions. Furthermore, advocating for a free and liberated Palestine includes Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze and all other religions and ethnicities. The movement does not single out or attack Judaism as a religion or people, in fact it embraces it as an integral part of the movement towards liberation for all. Most of all, there were and are Jewish Palestinians who have been living in Palestine continually for hundreds of years. A Free Palestine calls for justice and liberation, for Palestinians who have lived under violent occupation for generations, as well as justice and liberation for the oppressed Jews within the Occupation including Mizrahi and Ethiopian Jews. It hopes to create a truly democratic state in which self-determination and human rights are available for everyone.

Q: I stand against war crimes and ethnic cleansing, but I still believe that Israel has a right to exist. What does this mean for Israel and Jewish Israelis?

A: The modern state of "Israel" was founded on genocide, a colonial occupation, formed against the will of the Indigenous people of Palestine, and against the backdrop of zionist terrorist organizations committing massacres and driving out 750,000 Indigenous Palestinians in 1948. We are against religious ethno-nationalism of all forms, anywhere, and believe that any state that is founded on exclusionary policies based on religion, race or ethnicity will lead to oppression. We are advocating for a democratic environment in which Palestinians have full human and civil rights alongside all other people in the region including those of Jewish descent. As per many rulings by UN and international courts, settlers who have committed war crimes must be tried, and all Palestinians expelled be granted the Right of Return. Now is the time to imagine what that environment could look like, one where all people in the region can have self determination and not live under military occupation.

Q: Jews are from the Middle East. They aren’t white. Isn't saying they are white supremacists inaccurate and inflammatory and encouraging hate and division?

A: There are a number of things wrong with this question.

1. "Jews" are not a monolith. Being Jewish does not make one from the Middle East. Jewish Palestinians are from Palestine. Jewish Russians are from Russia. Jewish Hungarians are from Hungary. You get the idea. It is a fundamental fallacy that because the Jewish religion came from Palestine thousands of years ago, that all people who identify as Jewish have an ancestral link Palestine. The Christian religion also came from Palestine, and it would be absurd to consider that all people who identify as Christian come from Palestine.

2. One can absolutely be Jewish and white. The majority of Jewish people are Euro-Russian Caucasian (aka White). 90-95% of Jewish people in the US consider themselves white.

Even for non-white Jews, Arab Jews and Black Jews, White Supremacy is a system of power that governs oppression everywhere, that non-white people can and do contribute to. the “Israeli” State functions through a clear racial hierarchy, given power and authority by white supremacist ideologies that underly British and American foreign policy, that not only underlies Palestinian subjugation but also the oppression of Jewish people of color, including Sephardim and Ethiopian Jews.

Arguing about what is the most accurate way to describe the state’s supremacy misses the point that it is in fact functioning as a violent apartheid state.

Q: Is “from the river to the sea” an antisemitic call to expel Jewish people from Palestine?

A: No. It is calling for freedom for all people, not divided into tiny pockets of segregated populations, but across the entire land, from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, from Lebanon to Egypt.

The term was actually first used by the Likud party as a genocidal call to expel or exterminate all "Arabs" to establish a Jewish-supremacist ethnostate.

Q: I am 100% against violence towards Palestinians, and believe in their freedom, but a lot of your posts make me feel like there is not a place for me and my beliefs in the movement. How should we perceive this?

A: There is a place for everyone in the movement for Palestinian liberation, including Jews no matter where you are from. Because Jewish identity has been weaponized against Indigenous Palestinians, it is especially important for Jewish people to call for an end to the occupation and the apartheid state, the right of return of all Palestinians expelled under the occupation regime at least since 1948, and be on the front lines of a wholesale change in the way their community confronts power, violence and oppression in the region. Come on board!