In a classic case of passive aggression, several Jewish lawyers have filed to trademark the genocidal Jew-hatred phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Yirmi Knight, Esq., a US-based lawyer, filed an official request to trademark the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Knight told Israel365 News that his application is still pending and may take a year to process.
“Our goal is to enforce our rights and prevent those individuals, companies, and organizations, including venues that allow its use, from benefitting or using our phrase of ‘From The River To The Sea Palestine Will Be Free’ for their profit, benefit, or otherwise,” Knight said. “This is especially important to me given that the use of that phrase is an attempt to utilize it as a call-to-action slogan to kill Jews. I will do everything in my legal capacity to prevent that. Am Yisroel Chai (the nation of Israel will live).”
Knight has set up a GoFundMe crowd-sourcing page to help his effort.
“We are looking to raise funds for staffing and litigation costs to enforce our trademark rights and prevent any and all Sellers or Seller Venues that use our phrase ‘From The River To The Sea Palestine Will Be Free.’ Please join our cause “
Others have also adopted the tactic. Oron Rosenkrantz appears to have a prior claim with his application being filed on November 8. Rosenkrantz’s filing looked to trademark “From the river to the sea” for T-shirts.
As the trademarks are being filed in the US, they will not be applicable to the use of the phrase outside of the US. Trademarks initially provide 10 years of protection during which no other entity could use the slogan on specific or related goods. Then, the trademark owner can renew its validity for another 10 years of protection. Eventually, the mark can be protected and last a lifetime.
The phrase is controversial and Berlin announced that it is forbidden and the use of it will make one liable for prosecution. Austria announced that the phrase would be considered a murder threat and prosecuted as a criminal offense. Other cities and countries have considered also banning the slogan. Twitter banned the phrase, saying that it implies genocide and that such alleged “calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension.”
Twitter user Brian Krassenstein noted ironically that Elon Musk is being slammed by left-wing critics from all directions. “I find it interesting that you’re being attacked for both being anti-Semitic and anti-anti-Semitic,” he tweeted.
Earlier this month, the US House of Representatives voted 234-188 to censure Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan for posting a video using the phrase. Tlaib wrote in a subsequent post on Twitter that the phrase is “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”
The Anti-Defamation League notes the phrase has been adopted by terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Sadam Hussein, the PLO, and the PFLP, which all seek Israel’s destruction through violent means.
“It is fundamentally a call for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that includes the State of Israel, which would mean the dismantling of the Jewish state,” the ADL writes. “It is an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland.”
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, in 2023, has used the phrase in saying “The only solution is a Palestinian state from the river to the sea”.
The Hamas 2017 constitution states, “ “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
It should be emphasized that the phrase refers to a non-existent and unprecedented “Palestine” stretching westward from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. As the phrase is ambiguous and refers to a state that has never existed and has never had specific borders, it could be understood to mean a state that stretches southward from the Jordan River to the Red Sea, occupying a thin strip of western Jordan. Alternatively, the phrase could be referring to a “Palestine” that stretches eastward from the Jordan River to the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Sea, occupying the countries of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman.
