Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick says she used a controversial pro-Palestine slogan at a recent rally in Auckland for Gaza because she believes it calls for Palestinians’ human rights to be respected, Stuff reported. 

Swarbrick ended her speech with the words “from the river to the sea”, and members of the crowd replied with “Palestine will be free”. 

She told Stuff that she was comfortable using the chant, having spoken to Jewish and Palestinian people and given Avigail Allan, a co-founder of the group Dayenu: New Zealand Jews Against Occupation, led the same chant shortly before her. 

“The pathway forward for ongoing peace means justice. That means an immediate ceasefire, return of all hostages on both sides and recognition of the humanity and human rights of Palestinians, wherever they are, but especially in their occupied homeland - from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” she said. 

Reactions online to Swarbrick’s statement are calling for the MP to resign or to be stood down. 

Green Party MP has caused controversy over her use of the pro-Palestine slogan. 

“When Chlöe Swarbrick is up on stage at a rally screaming like a banshee “from the river to the sea” what she is actually supporting is the annihilation of the Jewish State,” one person wrote. 

Act Party leader David Seymour has criticised Swarbrick’s use of the slogan. 

“Some people believe it means no Israel and even no Jewish people,” he wrote on X. 

“Our Jewish community lives in fear of anti-semitism.” 

The slogan, which refers to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, has been used by politicians and advocates for the freedom of Palestine since the 1960s. 

David Zwartz, a leader of the NZ Jewish Council, told Stuff that the phrase was strongly antisemitic and set a very destructive anti-Jewish attitude. 

“It is calling for the destruction of the state of Israel. That means they want to do away with Jews who live there.” 

In the UK, Labour MP Andy McDonald was suspended from the party after using the same six words in his speech at a protest in London, The Guardian reported.