CNN said Thursday that it had severed ties with contributor Marc Lamont Hill following controversial comments the liberal pundit made about Israel.
“Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,” a spokesperson for CNN confirmed in a short statement.
The move was first reported by the media news website Mediaite.
How CNN weren’t the first to report this is beyond me. I’m also surprised they got rid of him for this, because CNN.
As for Hill, he has doubled down, explaining again that a “free Palestine from the river to the sea” means something other than its established meaning since the phrase was first uttered.
I concluded my remarks with a call to free Palestine from river to sea. This means that all areas of historic Palestine —e.g., West Bank, Gaza, Israel— must be spaces of freedom, safety, and peace for Palestinians.
Anyone who studies the region, or the history of Palestinian nationalism, knows that “river to sea” has been, and continues to be, a phrase used by many factions, ideologies, movements, and politicians.
The phrase dates back to at least the middle of the British Mandate and has never been the exclusive province of a particular ideological camp. The idea that this is a Hamas phrase is simply untrue.
It’s also ABSURD and illogical to suggest that a speech that explicitly called for redrawing borders and granting full citizenship for Palestinians IN Israel was also calling for its destruction. People either didn’t listen to the speech or they’re being dishonest.
This is kind of the equivalent of arguing that “That’s what she said” is explaining what she actually said.
But even if you argued he sincerely meant it the way he describes, redrawing borders and granting full citizenship for Palestinians IN Israel is another way of trying to destroy Israel, albeit demographically.
Let’s also remember that he expressed his support for violent “resistance” against Israel.
So Marc, close but no cigar. And by that, you surely know what I mean, right?
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