The phrase has a long history but rose in prominence in the aftermath of Hamas' deadly rampage across southern Israel on October 7 and Israel's subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

"Many Palestinian activists say it's a call for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and decades-long, open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians. Jews hear a clear demand for Israel's destruction," news agency the Associated Press says.

Harju County Court decided to uphold the fine on Thursday, arguing it is common knowledge in Estonia that the use of this expression is prohibited and punishable.

Applicant Leore Klõšeiko and the Estonian Human Rights Center believe the court's verdict is a threat to freedom of speech and will appeal the decision at the Supreme Court, the center announced on Friday.

In November 2023, a protest expressing solidarity with Palestine took place on Talliinn's Freedom Square. The police interrogated five attendees, some of whom were holding placards featuring the phrase "From the river to the sea".

All five were issued fines by the police under a section of the Penal Code that deals with the support and justification of international terrorism.

Four of them turned to the Estonian Human Rights Center. The center decided to represent them as part of a strategic lawsuit, as it sees a threat to freedom of expression in fining for the use of an expression widely used in international demonstrations.

"In a situation where an official who is currently at work decides on the prohibition of one or another expression in Estonia, anyone, even oneself, can suddenly become a supporter of terrorism in the eyes of the state. In cooperation with attorney Ronald Riistani, we appealed the police's decisions to the court," the center said.

The Harju County Court said the phrase is not protected by freedom of expression in Estonia, and the police had the right to restrict its use. Klõšeiko does not support Hamas and did not know anything about the symbol's connections with Hamas, the center noted.

Kelly Grossthal, head of litigation at the center, said in a country that respects human rights, criminal restrictions on freedom of expression must be foreseeable.

"Today's verdict is sad and incomprehensible. The fine for the expression, about which there was no previous social debate, was in no way predictable – as a sad joke, even the police officer who issued the fine decision was forced to admit in the courtroom that he first heard about the banning of the expression "From the river to the sea" only during the protest! And yet its own fine decision states that its ban in Estonia was common knowledge in November last year," Grossthal said, pointing out the contradictions that emerged during the court proceedings.

Klõšeiko's lawyer, Ronald Riistani, said the verdict is problematic in several ways.

These include the court failing to analyze the section of the penal code the fine was issued under; that a punishment was handed out despite Klõšeiko' being found to have not intentionally committed the act; and that it ignored the question of whether it is legitimate to delegate the choice of the list of punishable symbols to the police.

"In the present case, neither the legislature nor the executive has analyzed the question of the infringement of the applicant's fundamental rights, and the court has essentially failed to do so. Such a situation is certainly not constitutional," he said.

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