Michigan Congresswoman-elect Rashida Tlaib sent a message of support to Marc Lamont Hill, a former CNN commentator who was dropped from the network Thursday following a series of anti-Israel remarks.
“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,” Rashida Tlaib said. “CNN, we all have a right to speak up about injustice any and everywhere. @marclamonthill”:
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 https://t.co/YT49WCxVbo
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 30, 2018
CNN announced that Hill was no longer a contracted contributor with the network Thursday following backlash to his comments about Israel made at the United Nations this week. He said that he wanted a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” a statement that was interpreted by many to mean the destruction of Israel.
Hill also defended the use of violence by Palestinians, saying:
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
Following the backlash, CNN told Mediaite Thursday, “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN.” However, the network did not specifically condemn the anti-Semitic statements.
Tlaib wasn’t the only person who defended Hill. A number of left-wing activists and some media figures such as Shaun King, W. Kamau Bell, and Glenn Greenwald tweeted in support of Hill.
. @cnn needs to admit it made a real mistake firing Marc Lamont Hill today. People clearly misrepresented his speech in wild and dishonest ways. It was a speech about human rights and freedom.
— Shaun King (@shaunking) November 30, 2018
I know @marclamonthill. I was happy to have him on #UnitedShades. I listened to his UN speech & i don't understand the controversy. We have to be able to discuss Israel & Palestine.
& in other news… How does Rick Santorum still have a job at CNN?https://t.co/iqwqHWE07C
— W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) November 30, 2018
CNN's firing of Marc Lamont Hill over his Israel/Palestine speech is a major victory for “online call-out culture” but a major defeat for the right to advocate for Palestinian rights, to freely critique Israel, and for journalism and public discourse to accommodate dissent. https://t.co/FA9oOgxz3H
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 30, 2018
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