CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill made some comments concerning the Middle East at the United Nations today that haven’t sat too well with a lot of people. Those comments have now cost Hill his paid gig at CNN.
“Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,” a CNN spokesperson told TVNewser.
During his talk at the UN earlier today, Hill called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” and seemed to urge other nations to boycott Israel. For those not aware, “from the river to the sea” is a phrase often used by the terror group Hamas and other organizations that are openly anti-Israel. To many, he was attacking the Jewish people with a phrase which basically implies that Israel be replaced by Palestine which stretches from the Jordan all the way to the Mediterranean. He claimed otherwise on Twitter, as you’ll find below.
Anyone who studies the region, or the history of Palestinian nationalism, knows that “river to sea” has been, and continues to be, a phrase used by many factions, ideologies, movements, and politicians.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 29, 2018
The phrase dates back to at least the middle of the British Mandate and has never been the exclusive province of a particular ideological camp. The idea that this is a Hamas phrase is simply untrue.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 29, 2018
At one point during the meeting, Hill poured himself some water and told participants that he just got off a flight from “Palestine” and that “I was boycotting the Israeli water so I was unable to quench my thirst.”
Kind of a weird comment.
Hill also said:
We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea.
Contrary to western mythology, black resistance to American apartheid did not come purely through Gandhi and nonviolence.
Rather, slave revolts and self-defense and tactics otherwise divergent from Dr. King or Mahatma Gandhi were equally important to preserving safety and attaining freedom. If we are to operate in true solidarity with the Palestinian people, we must allow the Palestinian people the same range of opportunity and political possibility. If we are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people, we must recognize the right of an occupied people to defend itself. We must prioritize peace, but we must not romanticize or fetishize it. We must advocate and promote nonviolence at every opportunity, but we cannot endorse a narrow politics of respectability that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in the face of state violence and ethnic cleansing.
He continued to defend himself throughout the day:
I normally would ignore the current drama, but it’s actually important to me that I’m clear and understood. As a matter of principle.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 29, 2018
I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination. I am deeply critical of Israeli policy and practice.
I do not support anti-Semitism, killing Jewish people, or any of the other things attributed to my speech. I have spent my life fighting these things.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 29, 2018
My reference to “river to the sea” was not a call to destroy anything or anyone. It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza. The speech very clearly and specifically said those things. No amount of debate will change what I actually said or what I meant.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 29, 2018
This isn’t a case of throwing rocks and hiding hands. I genuinely believe in the arguments and principles that I shared in the speech. I also genuinely want peace, freedom, and security for everyone. These are not competing ideals and values.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 29, 2018
Not everyone supports CNN’s decision to fire Hill:
Please read this. CNN may do the cowardly thing & fire @marclamonthill for Israel comments that are 100% mainstream & acceptable among those who know anything about the debate. In the US, the only permitted position is “2-state solution” even though Israel made this a fairy tale: https://t.co/9PlkjOmWQg
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 29, 2018
In addition to being on the CNN payroll, Hill is also a professor at Temple and the host of BET News. He was also a Fox News contributor in 2009, often appearing on The O’Reilly Factor as something of a liberal foil to the conservative host.