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London Mayor Sadiq Khan claimed that the widely used chant “From the river to the sea” is not antisemitic, despite it calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.
During Mayor’s Question Time on Thursday, Assembly Member Susan Hall asked him directly if the chant was antisemitic. Khan answered, “I don’t think it’s antisemitic. I think it’s all about context.”
Khan conceded that anti-Israel protests coinciding with the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur were “inappropriate and insensitive.” However, he refused to call them antisemitic, saying that would mean judging “individuals’ behavior.”
As a result, his remarks reignited debate about when political slogans cross the line into hate speech.
Political Leaders Condemn the Mayor’s Remarks
Khan’s comments prompted immediate backlash. Lawmakers accused him of ignoring a slogan that rejects Israel’s right to exist.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Sir James Cleverly, the shadow communities secretary, said the chant “calls for wiping the world’s only Jewish state from the map.” He added that denying its antisemitic meaning is “patently absurd” and that Khan had “once again let the capital’s Jewish community down.”
Alex Wilson, Leader of Reform UK in the London Assembly, also denounced the mayor’s response. Speaking on GB News, he said, “We all know what ‘from the river to the sea’ means; it means wiping out all Jews. We all know what ‘globalize the intifada’ means; it means murdering Jews on British streets. These are calls for death to Jews, but Sadiq is not prepared to admit this.”
Former government adviser on political violence Lord Walney (John Woodcock) called the chant “soaked in antisemitism.” He said it “should be made completely unacceptable, not excused.”
“Anyone who thinks it is okay for people to chant that hateful phrase needs to consider what it is calling for Palestine to be free from,” he added. “They mean free from Jews.”
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, called the slogan “a hateful and extremist message.” He noted that because Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, its destruction “clearly carries antisemitic overtones.”
A Direct Rejection of the IHRA Definition
Khan’s stance directly contradicts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the United Kingdom in 2016 and endorsed by more than 1,200 entities worldwide.
Among IHRA’s eleven examples are “calling for, aiding, or justifying violence against Jews” and “denying the Jews the right to self-determination.” The slogan “From the river to the sea” embodies both antisemitic examples outlined by the IHRA. It calls for or justifies violence against Jews by promoting a vision of a land where no Jews would exist from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. In doing so, it denies the Jewish people their right to self-determination. Far from being “context-dependent,” the chant’s meaning is explicit and unmistakable — a call for the elimination of Jewish life and sovereignty in their historic homeland.
Read more on CAM’s IHRA antisemitism definition resource page.
A Dangerous Normalization of Hate
Each time the slogan appears at protests, it signals rejection of Israel’s existence and, by extension, the Jewish right to nationhood.
When leaders excuse or downplay such language, they blur the moral boundary between activism and hate. This confusion empowers extremists and weakens efforts to protect Jewish communities.
Jewish Londoners deserve a mayor who will defend them without hesitation. Words matter — and in this case, denial enables hate.
Take Action
CAM has launched Report It — a secure app to report antisemitic incidents anonymously and in real time. Don’t stay silent — download it today on the Apple Store or Google Play. See it. Report it. Stop it. Together, we can fight this hate.
