Hundreds of college professors and students are calling liberal news network CNN “racist” for firing Marc Lamont Hill after the Temple University professor called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” a veiled phrase that is a call for the destruction of Israel.
“CNN’s response to Marc Lamont Hill was extremely unjust. CNN and Temple University should have celebrated Hill’s call for justice and equality, but instead used it as an opportunity to silence and intimidate those who criticise the state of Israel,” says the online letter addressed to CNN.
“The racist nature of this incident should not be overlooked nor can it be excused. We are not alone in our deep disappointment in CNN for firing Marc Lamont Hill. It is for these reasons, that we, as supporters of justice and liberation for all, condemn CNN’s firing of Marc Lamont Hill. We believe in fairness and anti-racism and thus cannot stand idly by while CNN enacts blatant anti-Blackness and anti-Palestinian violence. We also urge Temple University to avoid repeating CNN’s mistake and to stand by Marc Lamont Hill’s right to speak for justice in Palestine.”
While the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) ripped Hill for using a United Nations speech to call for the establishment of Palestine “from the river to the sea,” the professors and students say the ADL “ignores Hill’s call for justice and conflates criticism of the Israeli state with anti-Semitism” which signatories assert is both factually incorrect and “extremely dangerous.” – READ MORE