Palestinian Athletes Promote Destruction of Israel: ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free’

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is relentless in announcing its goal to eliminate the State of Israel, and create a state of Palestine that stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

While training in Malaysia, the Palestinian national soccer team, which is a member of FIFA, posed for photos wearing scarves featuring the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel as “Palestine” in the colors of the Palestinian flag.

To spell out the PA message, the text in English on the scarves was explicit:

From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea Palestine will be free

Posted text: “The [Palestinian] ‘Fida’i’ [self-sacrificing fighter] national team reached Malaysia for training camp”

[Palestinian Football Association, Facebook page, Aug. 26, 2024]

The term “Fida’i,” literally self-sacrificing fighter, is the PA’s term for its terrorists. 

The PA has promoted the goal of “river-to-sea-Palestine” for decades, and the slogan has been adopted by anti-Israel protesters around the world during Israel’s current war against Hamas.

The slogan is rightly criticized for what it is: A call for the destruction of Israel.

To combat this criticism, the PA recently tried to present the slogan as “a call for peace” — but Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) and others have demonstrated that this call has a long history of referring to the total elimination of the State of Israel.

The Palestinian Football Association is headed by top PA official Jibril Rajoub, who is known for his support of terror against Israel and denial of Israel’s right to exist, as documented by PMW.

During the current war with Hamas, Rajoub has whitewashed Hamas’ massacre and murder of 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, as a Palestinian “defense war,” and referred to Oct. 7 as an “epic” event that included “acts of heroism.”

In 2018, PMW complained to FIFA about Rajoub, and he was suspended by FIFA from all activities for a year. In response, Rajoub lashed out at PMW, calling its director “Goebbels of the 21st century.”

Rajoub also heads the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, which organizes summer camps for hundreds of Palestinian kids every year. Among the activities are always map drawing, where kids are taught that “Palestine” really does stretch “from the river to the sea”:

Rajoub’s PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports also distributes numerous plaques featuring the PA map of “Palestine” that includes the entire State of Israel.

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.