CNN FIRES Marc Lamont Hill over Israel comments - Where are the free speech defenders?

[Markhor]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1448599/cnn-fires-analyst-marc-lamont-hill-after-un-speech-on-israel

CNN on Thursday parted ways with contributor Marc Lamont Hill after a speech the college professor made on Israel and Palestine at the United Nations.

A CNN spokesperson confirmed Hill is no longer under contract. The network did not give a reason, but the move comes amid objections to Hill's speech by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other groups.

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.

“Those calling for 'from the river to the sea' are calling for an end to the State of Israel,” the ADL's Senior Vice President for International Affairs, Sharon Nazarian, said in a statement, adding that the annual event at the UN "promotes divisiveness and hate".

Hill sent a series of tweets responding to his firing and defending his speech.

“My reference to 'river to the sea' was not a call to destroy anything or anyone,” Hill said on Twitter. “It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza. The speech very clearly and specifically said those things.”

"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."

Hill made a very eloquent 20 minute speech at the UN which has been reduced to those six words at the end that the ADL has taken out of context. The ADL condemn the far-right in America yet say nothing about the far-right Israeli coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

This brings me onto the point about the hypocrisy and duplicity of the free speech crusaders. I assume the likes of Ben Shapiro who blast college campuses for restricting free speech are going to be championing Professor Hill's speech rights ?

What about the editor of the Washington Examiner Seth Mandel who condemned "internet outrage mobs" for targeting James Gunn who tweeted controversial remarks about paedophilia ? Surely he'd be the first to criticise CNN's firing as a result of a right wing internet outrage mob ? Of course they didn't because there's no end to conservative hypocrisy.

If this is CNN's new standard then explain how Hill loses his job for supposedly "inciteful comments" whilst CNN continues to book far-right Trump supporters who lie, smear and make aggregious comments all the time on their programmes ? Why continue to hire hatemonger Alan Dershowitz or Rick Santorum who who once said, “All the people that live in the West Bank are Israelis. They are not Palestinians. There is no Palestinian. This is Israeli land.”

 

[Angrez Pakistani]

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others"- George Orwell.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea

The only way you can have a free Palestine from the river to the sea is if Israel didn't exist - I'm sure the commentator didn't mean that as he later clarified however the damage was done - when it comes to speaking about Israel in America the rules are very much different from anywhere else in the world. Even an innocuous and harmless so called anti Israel comment will get you ostracised - it's ridiculous.