MembersAn Open Letter to My Palestinian Brothers and Sisters

Lose the “Free Palestine” jingle. It’s misguided. We have a much better slogan you might want to try.

Palestinians protest against Israel
Rather than constantly protesting, maybe Palestinians should put that energy into building something. Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine! I see this everywhere. Protestors mindlessly shouting it out from New York to New Delhi, it’s plastered on streamers and memes around the globe, and huge graffiti banners along Tel Aviv highways.

Do you remember when this slogan began? The original mantra was, “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.” Could it be that the dream of getting the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean has been interrupted (you would think) by the fact of ISRAEL ON THE GROUND?! Why do your leaders keep pretending to ignore this? They sound like a 73-year-old still crying that daddy never took him to Disneyland.

What does “Free Palestine” even mean?

At first glance, we might take “free” as an adjective, though that doesn’t really make much sense. Everybody knows that nothing good comes free. Building a family, meaningful friendships or a well-developed, secure nation like Israel do not come easy. You have to work long and hard to obtain things that are “worth” while.

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