In a speech at Columbia, Finkelstein advises the crowd not to use alienating slogans such as “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” & choose ones that can appeal to broader audiences instead. As he walks off, someone else grabs the mike and leads the crowd in an enthusiastic “From the river to the sea.” There isn’t a single moment of reflection; everyone looks relieved that instead of thinking complicated thoughts, they can just slip right back into their favorite jingle.

Finkelstein’s speech is actually quite thoughtful & serious. He flatters the crowd but doesn’t pander. He tells them to think carefully about their strategy & aspire to go beyond being a political cult that speaks only to itself. He recalls marching down Fifth Ave in the 1970s chanting “Everybody should know, we support the PLO” & concedes with a laugh that that wasn’t the best strategy to get broad buy-in.

But the very seriousness of his speech shows how curiously disconnected he is from what this movement is actually about. He doesn’t seem to understand that “From the river to the sea” is the essence of this movement & its core demand: to free the territory of the current state of Israel from Jews. More important, it’s the core demand of this movement’s ideological sponsors.

Many students gathered there probably don’t even get this point, but the organizers most certainly do. They can’t relinquish this slogan any more than the communist parties of yesteryear could relinquish “Proletarians of the world unite.”
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