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UNAC Statement on the CNN Firing of Marc
Lamont Hill 12/3/18 Temple University
professor and CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN after
giving a powerful speech at the United Nations in support of Palestinian rights.
The Nov. 29, 2018, U.N. meeting was to commemorate the 70th year of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. The meeting also fell on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba,
when 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes by the newly declared
state of Israel and hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages were emptied
and destroyed.
Marc Lamont Hill spoke of the many violations of Palestinians’ human rights by the authorities in Israel. Not one fact that he mentioned in his talk was disputed by CNN, but his contract was terminated with a simple statement that said, “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN.” In his statement
to the U.N., Hill stated that, “At the current moment, there are more than 60
Israeli laws that deny Palestinians access to full citizenship rights simply
because they are not Jewish. From housing, to education to family
reunification, it is clear that any freedoms naturally endowed to all human
beings are actively being stripped away from Palestinians through Israeli
statecraft.” He went on to speak about the recent National State Law that
makes it explicit that Israel is not a state for the Palestinian people who
live there and made illegal settlement expansion a national value. He also
spoke about the special situation of the people of Gaza who live in the
world’s largest “open-air prison.” In Gaza, unarmed Palestinians protesting,
on their own territory, the conditions Israel imposes on them have been shot
in the thousands by Israeli forces. Hill equated the
Palestinian struggle to the struggle for Black liberation in the U.S. and
specifically mentioned the solidarity that was expressed between the
Palestinian people and the people of Ferguson, Mo., as they protested the cop
murder of Michael Brown. Hill also said
that words are not enough and that we must all take action. He said that
justice requires a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.” This last
statement has been especially criticized by Zionist organizations and individuals
as meaning, in their minds, that the Palestinians want genocide of the Jewish
people. But what it calls for is simply freedom for Palestinians in their own
land. If Zionists don’t like this statement then we must ask them, “In which
area from the river to the sea should the Palestinian people not be free?”
Unfortunately, through their actions, their answer has been all of it. As CNN proclaims
itself a bastion of freedom of speech, it denies this freedom to Marc Lamont
Hill and all who speak truth to power. They afford freedom of speech only to
those who agree with the reactionary politics of the CNN editors and censors. UNAC demands: Reinstate Marc Lamont Hill! End all U.S. aid to Israel! End the Wars at Home and Abroad! From the River to the Sea, All of
Palestine Will be Free! Click
here to see Marc Lamont Hill’s talk at the UN You can send feedback to
CNN by clicking here. |
