ThoseUniversity of Geneva
“From river to sea”: the Propalestinian slogan wins its trial
The controversial slogan, inscribed in the university agenda, could not be seen as an appeal to the eradication of Israel, according to the Geneva justice.
Geneva, May 8, 2024. During the student occupation of Uni-Mail, the slogan “From The River to the Sea” had crystallized the criticisms and the rectorate had ordered that it disappeared.
Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia
- The Geneva justice agrees with the CUAE concerning the disputed university agenda.
- The administrative chamber insists: Criticizing Israel does not equivalent to anti -Semitism.
- Depending on the context, the slogan “From the river to the Sea” is protected by freedom of expression.
- The cicad expresses its amazement in the face of this court decision.
The Geneva justice “has given the CUAE in full right”, is delighted the ridge of student associations. She reacts to the judgment of the administrative chamber which admitted her appeal against the suspension of the distribution of its university agenda last September.
Criticizing the actions of the Israeli government is not anti -Semitism, insists the judgment. The University of Geneva (Unige) will analyze it “in depth before deciding on a possible appeal to the Federal Court”.
“The CUAE opposed this arbitrary and disproportionate decision from the start,” recalls the ridge. She is still welcoming: “The slogan” From the river to the Sea “is protected by law.”
The rectorate had censored the agenda because of the mention of this slogan – “from the river to the sea”, following “Palestine Libre!” – as well as that of the 55 years of the triple hijacking of plane perpetrated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The university authorities had already ordered that the rallying cry of the world of Propalestinian solidarity movement disappeared from the Uni-Mail hall during its occupation in May 2024.
Call for violence
In the judgment, we read that, according to Unige, the recovery of the slogan by Hamas has the effect that it is understood as a “will to eradicate Israel”. And as an “call for violence”, insofar as he appears in a case on the same page as the anniversary date of the attack, itself seen as a “celebration of a terrorist act”. Consequently, the university’s ethics charter was raped, as is the limits to freedom of expression.
For CUAE, this slogan is on the contrary an appeal “to peace and respect”, to “the end of a political regime which is based on the systematic discrimination of part of its population and on colonial occupation” and to respect for international law.
The university did not contextualize the use of the slogan, namely the world movement calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and respecting international law, criticizes the chamber. However, it is this message that an “uninformed average third party” is likely to connect the slogan. The court does not see why an average person would favor the other reading, while the two interpretations coexist.
As for the problematic link established with the anniversary date, “this is an interpretation”. The room puts it into perspective, because the slogan appears in a blurred form. In addition, this date has already been mentioned in a previous agenda without raising criticism. And it is not the only reference of the booklet to violent situations, so that it cannot be considered as an apology for a terrorist act.
Geneva, September 16, 2024. Distribution of the student agenda on the forecourt of Uni-Mail.
Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia
Conclusion of the court: CUAE “exercised its freedom of expression by conveying a political message benefiting from the reinforced protection of this freedom”. And “the slogan” from the river to the sea “, carried by the student mobilization of May 2024 and taken up in the agenda 2024-2025, cannot be interpreted, taking into account its context, as a call to hatred, nor to the eradication of the State of Israel […]. Criticizing the actions of the government of this State is not constitutive of anti -Semitism, failing to encourage hatred against the Jewish people. ”
Station to amalgams
The judgment warns against this confusion, referring to the August 23, 2024 report by Irene Khan, UN special rapporteur, concerning “global threats to freedom of expression linked to Gaza conflict”.
As an example, Irene Khan denounces the amalgamation between anti -Semitism and anti -Zionism, which leads “to the rejection of any legitimate criticism of Israel”, and not to “strengthening the protection of Jews against racial hatred”.
Another case: the reaction of certain states to the world movement “boycott, disinvestment and sanctions” against Israel, a political expression protected by international law and legitimized in case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
As for the controversial slogan, the UN rapporteur deplored the disproportion of any general prohibition or criminalization adopted in certain Western states. Because incentive to violence “requires evidence of this intention and the possibility that it allows to achieve the objective pursued, not only to arouse feelings of fear, offense or insult”.
OLP, Likoud, Hamas
Seen by some as an intention of genocide towards the Jews, this slogan is considered by others as a claim of the Palestinian law to self -determination, notes this report.
Let us add that it is sometimes explained as an appeal to the solution of a single, democratic and secular state where Palestinian and Israeli equal footing would cohabit. What some consider a desire to deny the Jewish identity of the State of Israel, and therefore to eradicate it. The debate is endless.
The newspaper “Liberation” recalled in November 2023 that this slogan was born from the claims of the Palestine Liberation Organization which, from his training in 1964, had called for the creation of a single state which would extend from the Mediterranean (“the sea”) to the Jourdain (“the river”).
Then this slogan was brandished on the Israeli side by Likoud, defending the biblical “great Israel”. Hamas has finally taken hold of the slogan, he who rejects any alternative to an entire liberation from Palestine “from the river to the sea” and who has inscribed in his charter the destruction of the Hebrew state, Before briefing this passage in 2017.
The “amazed” cicad
Intercommunary coordination against anti -Semitism and defamation recalls that it has denounced a “Operation of CUAE and dangerous propaganda”. The organization is therefore amazed by the court decision, according to its secretary general, Johanne Gurfinkiel. “How to doubt a purely political decision?” How can we imagine that these elements present in the CUAE agenda do not affect the ethics of the university? All this is absurd and very deplorable. It remains to be hoped that the University is considering an appeal. ”
“Latest news”
Do you want to stay at the top of the info? “Tribune de Genève” offers you two meetings per day, directly in your e-mailbox. To not miss anything of what is happening in your canton, Switzerland or in the world.
Other newsletters
Did you find an error? Please report it to us.
