For the past two months, colleges and public squares across the country have been filled with demonstrations in support of Palestinian statehood and opposing Israel’s military response to the October 7 terrorist attacks and its policies toward the West Bank. “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” is a common chant at these protests, prompting debate over whether the phrase is or should be considered inherently threatening to Jewish students and others. University of Pennsylvania professor Claire Finkelstein, for one, argues this phrase “in the present context . . . creates a hostile environment that can impair the equal educational opportunities of Jewish students.”

Pplitical Science Professor Ron Hassner of the University of California at Berkeley was curious whether college students and others calling for Palestine to be “free” “from the river to the sea” understood what that slogan entails, so he conducted a survey to find out, and wrote up his results in the Wall Street Journal. His op-ed begins:

When college students who sympathize with Palestinians chant “From the river to the sea,” do they know what they’re talking about? I hired a survey firm to poll 250 students from a variety of backgrounds across the U.S. Most said they supported the chant, some enthusiastically so (32.8%) and others to a lesser extent (53.2%).