When people call for jihad or advocate globalising the intifada – believe them

If, for instance, they merely meant that Palestinians should be free in Israel as well as the area of a future Palestinian state, they could chant: “From the River to the Sea, Palestinians will be free”. But they do not. We should listen to them when they say what they mean and believe that they mean it.

What, then, does the phrase “Free Palestine” mean? Free from what? I think we all know what they are really getting at. They mean, and have since the earliest days of competing nationalist movements, free of Jews.

If the ceasefire holds, this is where the campaigning and argument will go next and we need to be ready to meet it. Ceasefire has never been the aim of the marchers, which is why they are still marching even after a ceasefire. What they want, and have always wanted, is the eradication of Israel. That’s the reason for their chanted slogan.

One way of meeting it will be to confront it. We need to tackle this slogan head on, exposing its meaning and the intent of those people who use it. We need to explain over and over again why it is a violent and dangerous threat to half the Jews in the world. We need to explain why it is a demand that cannot be met. There cannot be a Palestine from the river to the sea.

At the same time we need to co-opt the chants for freedom. Because, after all, Palestinians should be free, as all people should be everywhere. From river to sea and from sea to shining sea.

Here’s what we should say. Palestinians cannot be free to make war on their neighbours or on anyone else. The war that they launched in 1948 must end. They need to accept the reality that they have Jews as next door neighbours and stop organising themselves to kill these Jews. Nobody should be free to do that. If that is what “Free” means then the answer will always be a flat no.

But free to live in peace? Absolutely. Free to make laws and keep laws, free to vote in their governments and then vote them out, free to form romantic liaisons and engage on commerce? Absolutely. Free from fundamentalist, terrorising religious fanatics? Absolutely? Free to form a state if they can form one peaceably? Absolutely.

There are forces in Israel that don’t want to see even this, meanwhile inviting Tommy Robinson as a guest and attacking British multi-ethnic democracy. I want these Israelis to live safely and happily, and I will defend their right to do so passionately, but I am not here to just blindly agree with everything they say and do.

If there are Palestinians or their supporters ready to move from demanding a Free Palestine from the River to the Sea to demanding that Palestinians be free wherever they are, then to you I hold out my hand. I think there are many of us that do.

We aren’t naive. Our resolve to defend a safe Israel and Jews around the world is strong. Our determination has only got stronger. But enough now, with death. Let’s live together in peace. Tell us who you are and we will listen.