Countless times over the history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Palestinians have been offered an opportunity for a sovereign state of their own, but have refused each time. 

In 1937, the Peel Commission suggested a partition of what was then Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Jewish community accepted the proposal, and it was rejected by the Arabs. The same happened in 1947, with the UN Partition of Palestine, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel. If the Palestinians had wanted a free Palestinian state at the time, then it could have been established.

Though there are some who will say that a call to “Free Palestine” means an end to Israel’s military rule over the West Bank and Gaza this strains credulity, since the Palestinian national movement has been fighting Israel since before Israel took control of those territories in 1967, and has continued long after Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005. Prior to 1967, there were calls to liberate Palestine from Israel and the Jews, with plenty of terrorist attacks which preceded the Six Day War too. If calls to “Free Palestine” were made before 1967, that means this has nothing to do with Israel’s presence in the West Bank. It is a call for the destruction of the State of Israel, freeing Palestine of any Jewish presence.