“Free Palestine” is a slogan thrown around by the anti-Israel movement. What does it mean? This is something I wanted to investigate a little bit because it’s thrown out there so easily and unquestionably with it’s ambiguous meaning. What does Free Palestine not mean?
The term free leaves me a little bewildered. The word free here doesn’t mean anything related to freedom. Gaza, and Palestine more broadly, are theocratic despotic regimes. There are no political or personal freedoms. There is no choice in the matter. There is no LGBQT+. There are no Jews. There is no democracy or free press or free speech. The government in Gaza (Hamas) rules for the Islamic religion, fulfilling the subjugation of non-believers (and believers) to Islamic law, and elimination of Jews worldwide. The government in the West Bank (Fatah) rules for the Islamic religion, fulfilling the subjugation of non-believers (and believers) to Islamic law, and the elimination of Israel. Some in the west like to think of Fatah as the ‘moderate’ Palestinian movement.
It should be obvious, since the elimination and overthrow of Hamas and Fatah is a requirement of freedom - we are not talking about anything even close to freedom politically.
Free in this context means something along the lines of free from something. In 2006, Israel pulled out of Gaza completely. Literally taking Jewish people with them. They left this space to be autonomously governed. Under the international agreement, there was an election where Hamas won. Israel literally allowed an election to happen where genocidal parties were allowed to run. Hamas killed off the ‘moderate’ Fatah and no more elections. Let’s make it clear, Hamas didn’t do a bait and switch. They didn’t campaign on the idea of being the next Singapore, being rich and peaceful - they were elected on the charter of Islamic law and extermination of Jews. And that Fatah was weak and pathetic at doing this.
“Free Palestine” doesn’t mean peace. It doesn’t mean freedom. It means, free of Jews. Free of a Jewish state. Free of modern ideas and modern philosophies. Free Palestine means a perpetual state of war until Israel and more broadly the West is gone.
Some may make the argument that “free” means something along the line of free from consequences - as if October 7th wouldn’t result in a war and a well deserved response from Israel.