Mick Hartley

Aviva Winton at Fathom – ‘From the River to the Sea’ is the Postmodern ‘Hep! Hep!’

In the immediate aftermath of 7 October, the rallying cry of ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ was heard. Here was an updated version of the same antisemitic cry that British novelist, philo-semite and proto-Zionist George Eliot (nee Mary Ann Evans), of Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda fame, wrote about in her final essay, entitled, ‘The Modern Hep! Hep! Hep!’ in her last book, Impressions of Theophrastus Such, in 1878.

‘Hep! Hep!’ was the rallying cry of the marauding Crusaders as they charged across Europe massacring whole Jewish communities en route to Palestine. It is believed to be an acronym for the words Hierosolyma Est Perdita – Jerusalem is lost (although it is also thought to have been appropriated by medieval antisemites from the simple cry of shepherds herding their sheep). It was used again in the German anti-Jewish riots of 1819, when Jews became the victims of violent mob attacks in response to their desire for emancipation.

‘Hep! Hep!’ has been given a postmodern makeover. ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is a new attempt to deny any Jewish claim to national self-determination in the land of Israel, to deny Jewish indigeneity in the land of Israel, despite our unbroken and documented presence on the land for almost 4000 years, and ascribe indigeneity solely to another people. It is an outright lie which, in its refusal to concede objective facts, seeks to at once demonise the Israeli Jews and shut down rational discussion about the conflict.

Post-October 7, ‘From the River to the Sea’ has taken on a darker meaning. More than an attempt to disenfranchise the Jewish people from the land of Israel. It has functioned, in the shadow of the Hamas Pogrom, as a call to annihilate the Jews in their entirety from their land. And that darkness has been openly supported by a global movement of activists.

As we see quite clearly in the Free Palestine demos in London and elsewhere. They barely bother to pretend now, with that "old anti-Zionism is not the same as antisemitism" line. It's all about getting rid of the Jews.

The ’bad reasoning’ against the Jews has become another Hep! today a mix of post-colonialism, intersectionality, critical race theory and identity politics. These converge to claim that Israelis are white settler colonialists who are guilty of ethnic cleansing and the genocide of indigenous Palestinians from their native land. In essence, Israel’s very existence is a horrific crime, and every Israeli is a criminal, as is every Zionist who supports Israel’s right to exist. Everything that therefore happens to the Israelis/Jews is justifiable because it is an act of resistance by a colonised people to whom all moral and progressive individuals have an absolute obligation to give complete and wholehearted solidarity, no matter what they choose to do. This is the new ‘Hep!’