There is only one story today in our community, the firing by CNN of commentator Marc Lamont Hill, an activist and Temple University professor of media studies, because he gave a speech Wednesday calling for the liberation of Palestine “from the river to the sea.”
The demands for Hill’s head from supporters of Israel that evidently led to his firing as well as expressions of solidarity from Palestinian supporters in the aftermath show that the end of the two-state-solution is bringing about open ideological conflict in the U.S. establishment, with supporters of Palestinians being accused of anti-Semitism, much as they are in the U.K.
Here’s Hill’s speech to the UN (posted by Jadaliyya) in a program of international solidarity with the Palestinian people. The 39-year-old scholar had just returned from a visit to Palestine and said he was thirsty because he was boycotting Israeli water. Hill went on to say that Palestinians have been stripped of their rights for 70 years since the Nakba, described Palestinian persecution with great specificity and said that their resistance must be honored in all forms, chiefly by supporting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS. The speech notes that black resistance in the U.S. was not strictly nonviolent:
Solidarity from the international community demands that we embrace boycotts, divestment, and sanctions as a critical means by which to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinian people. This movement, which emerges out of the overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society offers a nonviolent means by which to demand a return to the pre ’67 borders, full rights for Palestinian citizens, and the right of return as dictated by international law.
Solidarity demands that we no longer allow politicians or political parties to remain silent on the question of Palestine. We can no longer in particular allow the political left to remain radical or even progressive on every issue from the environment to war to the economy. To remain progressive on every issue except for Palestine. 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. We must allow—if we are to operate in true solidarity with 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 fact of state violence and ethnic cleansing.
Hill ends with a call “to commit to political action, grassroots 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.”
The speech became a flashpoint for Israel defenders to say that anti-Zionists are haters.
Late yesterday CNN issued a terse statement saying that Hill was “no longer under contract,” while Hill defended himself in 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,” Hill wrote.“My reference to ‘river to the sea’ was not a call to destroy anything or anyone,” Hill 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.”
Rashida Tlaib, MI congresswoman-elect who supports BDS, supported Hill, in a sign that the clash over anti-Semitism/Palestinian solidarity in the U.K. is coming here and in a hurry:
Calling out the oppressive policies in Israel, advocating for Palestinians to be respected, and for Israelis and Palestinians alike to have peace and freedom is not antisemitic.
@CNN, we all have a right to speak up about injustice any and everywhere.@marclamonthill
Dan Shapiro, the former Obama ambassador to Israel who now lives in Israel and works for a quasi-official thinktank, was disgusted by Hill’s statement.
Until today, I never heard of of @marclamonthill (don’t watch a lot of cable TV). This is disgusting. Calling for the elimination of Israel is anti-Semitic and (being thankfully futile) does Palestinians no favors.
Yousef Munayyer at Huffpo recognizes the moment:
Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at Temple University and a fierce advocate for equality, was perhaps the strongest, most articulate and most passionate voice against racism and bigotry among CNN’s regular contributors. Today, CNN fired him because he believes Palestinians, too, fit into a vision where all people deserve equal rights. For CNN, that was just too much.
Marc was targeted by what can only be described as an organized campaign to silence his principled and consistent advocacy against racism and for the equal treatment of all people, including Palestinians.
IfNotNow, the renegade young Jewish group, defends Hill and is circulating a petition.
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@CNN just fired@marclamonthill, one day after his speech at the UN advocating for Palestinian human rights. This should not be a fireable offense. Sign and share our petition calling on CNN to reinstate Marc Lamont Hill immediately.
Here is Omar Baddar on the “manufactured controversy.” He points out that Netanyahu has helped to create a one-state reality.
By contrast, Marc supports a one-state vision where everyone has equal rights. Whatever you think of this vision, it isn’t calling for “destruction”, but merely a transformation from a discriminatory state that privileges some over others into an equal state for all.
He notes that an occupied people have a right to resist under international law, including by violent means.
all violence against civilians is despicable & illegitimate. But if you have a problem with the right of occupied people to resist the theft of their lands & the stripping of their rights (NOT thru terrorism), it’s not Marc you have a problem with, it’s international law.
& if u haven’t protested Israel’s atrocities killing thousands of Palestinian civilians (condemned by every major human rights org, including Israeli ones), but are troubled by Marc’s acknowledgment of the right to resist, make an effort to rid yourself of moral hypocrisy.
Mitchell Plitnick calls Baddar’s commentary an “outstanding and important rebuttal to the campaign of falsehoods and character assassination directed against” Hill. Yet a further sign that this is a which-side-are-you-on moment in the awareness of the death of the two state solution.
Elon Glickman, a Birthright bolter, also supports Hill:
This is nothing short of censorship. I was terrified enough to think that I may not be allowed into Israel because I support Palestinians liberation. Now we’re seeing people get fired from their jobs for doing.
@CNN reinstate@marclamonthill immediately!
Israel’s consul general in New York welcomed the news and called Hill anti-Semitic. From the Algemeiner:
Israel’s Consul General in New York, Ambassador Dani Dayan, welcomed the news of Hill’s dismissal. “I welcome CNN’s decision today to end Marc Lamont Hill’s association with their network,” he said in a statement. He also called for “Americans to stand strong against the dangerous anti-Semitic idea that Jews cannot legitimately live as a free people in their homeland. Anti-Semitism and dangerous political extremism cannot be allowed to become mainstream.”
The Zionist Organization of America links Hill’s comments to the attack on the Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11, saying “anti-Semite Hill… [was] demanding Israel’s violent destruction” — and wants more from CNN and Temple University, too (which has defended Hill only on First Amendment grounds):
We urge CNN to rectify this missed opportunity, and to also strongly condemn Hill’s egregious, Jew-hating, violence-inciting, error-filled rant.
Read Hill’s tweet defending his speech:
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.
Here’s Marc Lamont Hill in Nazareth four years ago with the Dream Defenders, dedicating himself to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
“We came here to Palestine to stand in love and revolutionary struggle with our brothers and sisters. We come to a land that has been stolen by greed and destroyed by hate… And we stand next to people who continue to courageously struggle and resist the occupation.”
Solidarity Demonstration in Nazareth : Ferguson to Palestine from Dream Defenders on Vimeo.
We’ll keep this post updated.
Ann Coulter tweeted “At least this will put an end to the Jews control the media slander.”
I laughed.
What did Mark Lamont Hill do wrong? He simply spoke the truth, this cannot be forgiven by CNN. Last night I watched the BBC’s question time, on the panel was Layla Moran a new UK Liberal Democrat MP, she’s this country’s first British-Palestinian MP – her mother is from Jerusalem – but she wades into the Israel/Palestine debate sparingly “because it’s so emotive”. She made an exception for John McDonnell on Politics Live earlier this month though. “I had to mansplain anti-Semitism to him,” she says. Moran was upset about posters saying that Israel is a racist state. “The people who put it up were called London Palestine Action. As a Palestinian they don’t speak for me, and they are blatantly racist signs. You don’t say a whole country is racist. McDonnell said he’s ‘on a journey’.” She does a droney impression of him. “I was like ‘really?’ You’re 60 something years old, come on. If you haven’t realised by now that this is anti-Semitism no wonder there’s a problem in the Labour Party.”
“I’ve been attacked by people who say you’re not a real Palestinian and your mum’s not a real Palestinian for raising you that way. But when I see someone who is ‘on a journey about being anti-Semitic’ I’m sorry but I’m intervening. Calling out anti-Semitism doesn’t make me any less Palestinian. There’s a nuance in the argument that has been lost and Corbyn not saying antisemitism is wrong has fuelled the problem. Some responsibility does lie at his door.” https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/the-bright-new-face-of-the-centre-a-meeting-with-layla-moran-a3940011.html
Moran is an intelligent woman who is well aware of the Israel/Palestinian situation, as a new Lib Dem MP it must be difficult to acknowledge the many crimes the Israeli state is involved in and the second class status of Palestinians living in Israel. A cursory glance at the racist state laws, including its 1950 ‘right of return’ laws [for Jews only] and the recent and racist basic Nation state law prove that the Israeli state is inherently racist, to say otherwise as Layla Moran does, presumably to enhance her career is despicable, like many in the Labour Party, she is a phony.
This gets ridiculous by the day. I have heard the zionist propaganda machine say terrible things about the Palestinians, as if they were all “terrorists” and they get away with it every time, no journalist on CNN uses the words “occupation” or “land grabs”, suggesting that perhaps if that ended, there could be peace. Now, in the land of free speech, this poor guy is kicked out.
We should not be surprised, this is the zionist controlled media.
It’s not surprising that a call for justice, equality and respect for human rights in I-P is met with condemnation and disgust by Jewish supremacists (Zionists).
It’s also not surprising that a similar call with respect to some other injustice would very likely – and quite hypocritically – be supported by these same Jewish supremacists (Zionists).
Sorry HL I have never heard of this woman before but her comments IMHO don`t make her in anyway an”intelligent woman” but as has been pointed out the Corbyn”Anti- Semite” witch hunt organised by the Ziolobby in the UK has uncovered lots of strange Ziobedfellows. She should have a cosy chat with Tom Watson.
The claim that JC somehow has not been saying that Anti – Semitism is wrong can only be interpreted at best as a spouting from a dithering idiot and at worst a disgusting hypocritical lie. A simple Google search will bear this out eg(amongst many):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-44940841/anti-semitism-is-simply-wrong-says-jeremy-corbyn
Also interesting that the same woman for whatever reason has tabled a bill calling for the UK government to recognise a Palestinian State and the very same Jeremy Corbyn has said that if elected a Labour Government would recognise a Palestinian State. In her warped universe presumably she sees her motives as being true to true to her Palestinian roots whereas JC`s motives are “anti – Semitic”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfzXGpKQJ0U
She should revisit Zioland and the territories which it is occupying and controlling ,especially the quasi concentration camps where innocent Palestinian men,women and children are detained for months without trial and subject to daily brutalisation on straightforward racist grounds
then come back and explain to her constituents and the British public at large why she believes that “Israel” is not a racist state.
“You don`t say a whole country is racist”. Of course you do Ms Moran and lots and lots of respected commentators including lots of respected Israelis have been saying precisely that following the passing of the blatantly racist and Apartheid Nation State Law which she has conveniently ignored.
It was 100% right and totally justifiable to call Apartheid South Africa a racist state and it is 100 % right and justifiable to call Israel an Apartheid and racist state.