The panel says the phrase, often used in solidarity with Palestinians, does not violate the platform’s rules on hate speech.
Meta’s independent oversight board ruled that the phrase “from the river to the sea,” often used in solidarity with Palestinians, does not in itself violate the company’s current policies.
The decision Wednesday by the committee, which makes final decisions on moderating content on the platform, follows a review of three posts. It comes amid a broader debate over the phrase, which has been widely used by protesters in solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel’s nearly 11-month war on Gaza.
It refers to the geographical area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
“In upholding Meta’s decisions to maintain the content, the board majority notes that the phrase has multiple meanings and is used by people in a variety of ways and with different intentions,” the panel said.
“Specifically, all three contents contain contextual signs of solidarity with Palestinians – but no language calling for violence or exclusion,” he added.
The decision comes as the death toll of Palestinians in the war stands at 40,861. According to the United Nations, more than 90 percent of the population has been displaced, leading to a humanitarian and health crisis. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel in attacks by Hamas on October 7.
Israeli officials and pro-Israel groups have denounced the phrase as a covert call for violence and labeled it “anti-Semitic” and the eradication of Jews. However, some Israeli officials have themselves used versions of the phrase’s geographic reference to call for total Israeli control over occupied Palestinian territory.
Meta’s supervisory board said a minority of its members believed that after the start of the war, the use of the phrase in a message should be presumed to constitute a glorification of Hamas – the Palestinian group that carried out the October 7 attack on southern Israel – and violence “unless there are clear signals to the contrary.”
Palestinians and their supporters have presented the phrase as a call for self-determination and liberation from decades of Israeli occupation and for the rights of Palestinians living throughout historic Palestine, a land now divided between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory after the 1948 Nakba, or catastrophe, which displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during Israel’s creation.
Speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune in November, Nimer Sultany, a professor of law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, explained that much of the debate revolved around the word “free.”
He described this adjective as expressing “the need for equality for all inhabitants of historic Palestine.”
“Those who support apartheid and Jewish supremacy will find this egalitarian song reprehensible,” Sultany, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“This is the heart of the problem: the persistent refusal of Palestinians to live in equality, freedom and dignity like everyone else,” Sultany said.
In a statement, Meta said: “We welcome the board’s review of our guidance on this matter.”
“While all of our policies are developed with security in mind, we recognize that they come with global challenges and we regularly seek input from experts outside of Meta, including the Oversight Board,” the company said.
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