Parliamentarians in the Dutch lower house narrowly voted this week to criminalise the chant “from the river to the sea,” which calls for Israel to be wiped off the map. There are questions over how the motion, passed by just 74-73 votes, will be enacted. But more importantly, it strikes at the heart of the debate over the limits of free speech.
Members of Geert Wilders’ populist Party for Freedom said the ban was in response to “a disturbing increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands.” The motion adds that “from the river to the sea” comes “right off the Hamas charter and is therefore a call for violence against all Jews worldwide.”
