The meaning of ‘from the river to the sea’

The children of the stones have scattered our papers, spilled ink on our clothes, mocked the banality of old texts … Mahmoud Darwish.

Today I learnt the meaning of the phrase from the river to the sea. I thought that it meant that all peoples between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean sea will, one day, be free under a single democratic state. Despite a short time frame over 700 organisations and individuals put in submissions to the Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee. I put in a submission myself.

The parliamentary Justice and Integrity committee says that I was wrong. The LNP chair of the committee says I was wrong. The Jewish Council of Deputies says that I was wrong. The member for Thuringowa says that I was wrong. The only group that attended this august committee meeting that had any sympathy with my understanding was Keysar Trad from the Islamic Council of Queensland.

As I walked into the Queensland Parliamentary annex, the security guard called John with the USA flag tattooed on his forearm said that I could not enter because my t-shirt had from the river to the sea written on it. John suggested that I turn my t-shirt inside out. I demured in polite disagreement because my friend Lachlan had put so much effort into designing the t-shirt.

Of course, Remah Naji, steeped in Palestinian tradition and culture, knew exactly what from the river to the sea. but she was denied an audience before the prestigious Justice and Integrity committee of the Queensland Parliament!

REMAH NAJI – excluded from the hearings about the anti-semitism bill

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The legislation is supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the Queensland Government is complicit by allowing weapons to be manufactured here in Brisbane and sent directly to Israel to destroy Gaza.

The Sergeant at Arms said, turning my t-shirt inside out wouldn’t be enough and told me to leave.

I offered a compromise and said that I would put my keffiyah over the top. He said that’s just as bad, it’s political. I said no it’s not, it’s cultural … he said I’m not going to argue with you. Get out. So much for the people’s house.

Excluded from the Parliament, I watched the Justice for Palestine spokesperson sitting patiently on the live stream of oral submissions by two Zionist organizations including the special envoy into anti-semitism, several lawyers groups including the Queensland Law Society, the Bar Association, The Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland representing multiculturalism and the Islamic Council of Queensland. But the very group the legislation was targeting, namely the Palestinian people, was once again denied a voice. So much for inclusivity and social cohesion.

On my phone app of the live stream, Keysar Trad from the Islamic Council of Queensland warned the committee that criminalising language via the proposed hate-speech laws risked turning ordinary political expression into a crime, suggesting that focusing on policing vocabulary would not address deeper social issues, and that subjective interpretations of terms could be problematic.

He said that once the legislature begins to police vocabulary based on subjective trauma, it would be damaging to legal norms — implying that the bill’s framework for banning phrases like “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the Intifada ( which he said means shaking off)” could be dangerous for free speech.

Who would have thought that when we printed the Big Ride for Palestine Australia t-shirt some years ago that it would be banned by the Queensland Government?

When combined with the Commonwealth legislation, the intent is to proscribe organizations that actively support the Palestinian people’s right of return from the river to the sea.. Fancy banning a bicycle group that raises money to support people in Gaza and women in the refugee camps in Lebanon.

The Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Bill 2026 is designed to suppress the anti-genocide movement in Brisbane led by Justice for Palestine Magan-djin organization. JFP, founded in 2009, has organised over 100 demonstrations supporting a free Palestine during the past two and a half years. These demonstrations have attracted a significant portion of the population, reaching as many as 50,000 people participating in one protest on a single day.

Outside while waiting for the press conference that followed Remah Naji’s exclusion by that august body the Justice and Integrity committee I was reminded Ghassan Kanafani’s story about a child in Palestine

I heard you in the other room asking your mother, ‘Mum, am I Palestinian?’When she replied, ‘Yes,’ a heavy silence fell over the house. It was as if something hanging over our heads had fallen, its sound echoing and then silence. Then I heard you crying. I couldn’t move. Something greater than my consciousness was being born in the other room through your confused sobs. It was as if a blessed scalpel was cutting open your chest to place your heart inside it. I couldn’t move to see what was happening in the other room. But I knew that a distant homeland was being reborn. Hills, olive trees, dead people, torn and folded flags,all were making their way to a future of flesh and blood,being born in the heart of another child. Do you believe that people grow up? No, they are born suddenly. A word, a moment, pierces their heart with a new beat. A single scene can plunge them from the roof of childhood to the rough road.

طفل في فلسطين:سمعتُك في الغرفة الأخرى تسأل أمَّك: «ماما، أنا فلسطيني؟»وحين أجابتك: «نعم»، ساد البيتَ صمتٌ ثقيل.كان كأنَّ شيئاً كان معلقاً فوق رؤوسنا قد سقط، دوّى صوته ثم عمّ الصمت.بعد ذلك سمعتُك تبكي.لم أستطع أن أتحرك.كان هناك شيء أكبر من وعيي يولد في الغرفة الأخرى من خلال نشيجك الحائر.كان كأنَّ مشرطاً مباركاً يشقُّ صدرك ليضع فيه القلب الذي يخصك.لم أستطع أن أتحرك لأرى ما الذي يحدث في الغرفة الأخرى.لكنني كنت أعلم أن وطناً بعيداً كان يولد من جديد.تلال، أشجار زيتون، موتى، رايات ممزقة وأخرى مطوية،كلها كانت تشقُّ طريقها إلى مستقبل من لحم ودم،وتولد في قلب طفل آخر.أتؤمن أن الإنسان يكبر؟لا، إنه يولد فجأة.كلمة، لحظة، تخترق قلبه بخفقة جديدة.مشهد واحد يمكن أن يهوي به من سقف الطفولة إلى وعورة الطريق.

Not since the pronouncement by former Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson Peterson declared that the day of the political street March is over has a government put forward such an attack on democratic rights in Queensland. Taken with the federal legislation proscribing Palestinian organisations, this law heralds an era of repression that must be challenged and fought.

It is absurd that this legislation should be rush through the Parliament under the pretext that there is a link between Bondi and anti-semitism in Queensland.

Ian Curr

20 February 2026

Justice for Palestine Magan-djin submission to the Justice Integrity and Safety Committee

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:AP:eb025216-36be-48d5-889c-2c37902175ee