AP reports in “CNN Fires Analyst Marc Lamont Hill After UN Speech on Israel” that “Hill, a professor of media studies at Temple University who had been a recurring political commentator on CNN, called for countries to boycott and divest from Israel in the Wednesday speech given for the UN’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
“‘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 the speech.
“The ADL and others said the ‘river to the sea’ phrase is code for the destruction of Israel often used by Hamas and groups bent on its destruction.”
Hill said on Twitter: “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.”
“I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination,” Hill tweeted, adding, “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.” See video and transcript of Hill’s speech.
ALI ABUNIMAH, aliabunimah at me.com, @AliAbunimah
Founder of the Electronic Intifada, Abunimah just wrote the piece “Marc Lamont Hill Politically Lynched for Telling Truth about Palestine.”
Hill also wrote: “I called for a single democratic state where everyone votes. Jews, Muslims, Christians and everyone else deserve to live in peace and safety. And with self-determination. No one’s freedom should come at the expense of others.”
Abunimah — whose books include One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, wrote of Hill’s explanation: “This is precisely the message Israel and its lobby are most terrified of — because it resonates with ordinary people. This is why they smear and defame people who call for justice and equality.”
Wrote Abunimah: “The accusations against Marc Lamont Hill are outright lies promoted by high-level operatives of the Israel lobby in their latest effort to silence and punish anyone who dares speak out in support of Palestinian equality and freedom from Israel’s brutal regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.
“They perfectly match the kind of smear and sabotage tactics revealed in the censored Al Jazeera documentary on the U.S. Israel lobby that was recently published in full by The Electronic Intifada.”
Also see: Yousef Munayyer at Huffington Post: “CNN Fired Marc Lamont Hill for Saying Palestinians Deserve Equal Rights.”
Glenn Greenwald just wrote the piece “CNN Submits to Right-Wing Outrage Mob, Fires Marc Lamont Hill Due to His ‘Offensive’ Defense of Palestinians at the U.N.“
