*CNN has fired commentator Marc Lamont Hill a day after he gave a speech at the UN calling for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
He made the controversial comments Wednesday during a meeting at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
In his remarks, Hill said “we must advocate and promote non-violence,” but added that “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.”
Critics condemned the comments, with many noting “from the river to the sea” is a phrase used by Hamas and other anti-Israel terror groups.
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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
“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,” Hill said in his speech.
“Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,” a CNN spokesperson told Mediaite.
“Contrary to western mythology, black resistance to American apartheid did not come purely through Ghandi and nonviolence,” Hill said in his speech. “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.”
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
Hill was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League as well as the National Council of Young Israel.
He addressed the issue Thursday afternoon in a series of tweets:
“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,” he wrote.
“My reference to ‘river to the sea’ was not a call to destroy anything or anyone,” he continued in a separate tweet. “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.”
