Iasmine Abdennabi, of Contra Costa County, Calif., is suing the head of the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles after it recalled her license plate stating “RVRTSEA,” a reference to the anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea.”
According to the complaint, which was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the agency violated Abdennabi’s First Amendment rights by putting the brakes on her personalized plate.
She received the plate in May 2024. The DMV ordered that it be canceled and returned in October 2025, according to the filing.
A judge upheld the recall and found that the plate could refer to genocide or create a “risk of inciting violence.” Steve Gordon, the DMV director and defendant in the lawsuit, adopted that decision in August, and it took effect in September.
The judge’s decision, attached to the complaint, describes complaints from motorists who interpreted the plate as a call for Israel to be destroyed. One reported feeling “fear, anxiety and a clear sense of being personally targeted.”
Abdennabi denied intending a threat or advocating violence, according to the complaint.
“The Jewish community has the same right to safety and equal protection under the law as every other community,” Jayne Zirkle, director of communications at the Lawfare Project, told JNS.
Zirkle noted that Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, has used the slogan in its messaging.
“Free speech matters. So does the right of Jewish Americans to live without intimidation,” she told JNS. “When terrorist organizations use rhetoric calling for Israel’s elimination, the implications for public safety cannot be dismissed.”
Abdennabi wants the court to order the DMV to reverse the recall so she can continue to use the license plate. She also seeks a ruling that the recall violated her constitutional rights and for the court to declare that “even assuming the configuration bears the meaning attributed to it by the DMV,” it isn’t inciting violence.
