posted
Marc Lamont-Hill got fired from CNN for ending his speech at the UN about Palestine with the words "A free Palestine, from the river to the sea".
"from the river to the sea" is I believe a term used by Hamas and other hard line and militant pro-Palestine activists and organization who want a Palestine free from any Israeli control, which is interpreted as the genocide of Israel.
The real issue is here is whether MLH understood the consequences of his ending the speech with that phrase. I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it knowing that either way his activist stance would work.
If he had used the phrase in the middle of the 20 minute speech it would have gotten lost in the middle of all the other words. I think using at the end was strategic timing.
If CNN had kept him on they would have had to deal with the media consequences of a campaign demanding his firing, yet on firing him his speech has gained a lot of publicity. It is almost certain that very few people would have heard of the speech or even bothered to look it up and listen to it if not for the controversy of his firing. I know I wouldn't have, since I have considered his stance on some issues rather suspect.
It is really a tactical masterstroke on his part and I have to hand it him for that.
-------------------- The Habsburg Agenda - Defending Western Christian civilization Posts: 890 | From: London | Registered: Apr 2014
| IP: Logged |
posted
In a week or two he will be forgotten. Why take on the Palestinian cause? He does not have a history advocating for them. Seems very contrived. I don't get why we fight for other oppressed groups when they definitely don't reciprocate the favor. He will regret this. His tenure at the university also is in jeopardy.
posted
Arab military and cultural imperialism after Muhammad's death transformed West Asian and North Africa into part of the so-called "Arab World"--where Arabic and Islam were forcefully imposed. For example, Egypt, Africa's civilizational patrimony has been buried under the Crescent Moon and Scimitar of Islam. The Arabs claim that before Islam--all was darkness in the world. Total nonsense of course.
The Palestine Mandate of 1947 was just another colonial reorganization of the colonized world. The Arabs balked and quickly went to war against the Jews. They lost and MLH is the latest recruited pleader for the Arab cause. CNN's CEO is Jewish and he teaches at Temple University, which carries some Jewish clout. Have no idea why MLH wants to be a money martyr for Arabs. He stumbled here.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote: We saw the connections between the police in New York City who are being trained by Israeli soldiers and the type of policing we were experiencing in New York City. We began to see relationships of resistance, and we began to build and struggle and organize together. That spirit of solidarity that is bound up not just in ideology but in action is the way out.
Marc Lamont Hill apologizes for urging ‘free Palestine from river to sea’ Progressive professor fired by CNN says he did not intend to call for Israel’s destruction, but for a binational state and ‘radical change’ within Israel)
Marc Lamont Hill, a political commentator and professor at Temple University, has apologized for his use of a phrase associated with Palestinian extremists in discussing the current plight of the Palestinians at the United Nations.
Hill, a professor of media studies and urban education at Temple who also hosts the syndicated television show “Our World with Black Enterprise,” called for “a free Palestine from the river to the sea” on Wednesday during an event held at the United Nations for the 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, grassroots 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.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up
He was fired the next day by CNN.
In an op-ed published on Saturday in Hill’s hometown newspaper, the Philadephia Inquirer, he wrote: “Critics of this phrase have suggested that I was calling for violence against Jewish people. In all honesty, I was stunned, and saddened, that this was the response.”
“Palestine from the river to the sea” was a slogan of the Palestine Liberation Organization beginning with its founding in 1964, claiming a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and rejecting control by Israel of any land in the region, including areas controlled by Israel prior to 1967. It later became a popular political slogan used by Palestinians who reject compromise with Israel, including the terror group Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel.
Hill said in his op-ed that he was calling for justice in the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, in the form of a single bi-national democratic state that encompasses Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
“Throughout my speech, I spoke explicitly about the need for Israeli political reform, specifically as it pertains to Arab citizens of Israel. I also called for a redrawing of borders to the pre-1967 lines, as well as a greater attention to human rights for those living in the West Bank and Gaza. At the time, I believed that these demands made in the speech sufficiently reflected my belief in radical change within Israel, not a desire for its destruction,” he wrote. “Clearly, they did not.”
“I take seriously the voices of so many Jewish brothers and sisters, who have interpreted my remarks as a call to or endorsement of violence. Rather than hearing a political solution, many heard a dog-whistle that conjured a long and deep history of violence against Jewish people. Although this was the furthest thing from my intent, those particular words clearly caused confusion, anger, fear, and other forms of harm. For that, I am deeply sorry,” he wrote.
Hill also noted that he has called for a rejection of anti-Semitism in any form, including preventing physical violence against Jews as well as anti-Semitic images.
CNN, which had employed Hill as a political commentator, announced on Thursday that it had fired him. read more:
Posts: 42919 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
(BDS) Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.
Marc Lamont Hill: BDS Movement website 2017
Why I Applaud The NFL Players Who Spoke Out Against Israel February 17, 2017 By Marc Lamont Hill
It is more important than ever that we stand in solidarity with communities fighting oppression.
Eleven NFL players were recently invited on an all-expenses paid trip to Israel. Although they all initially accepted the invitation, only five ultimately made the trip. The drop in attendance was sparked by Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills, both of whom decided to boycott the trip and publicly express their dissent. As an activist and longtime supporter of Palestinian rights, I applauded the move.
Sponsored by the Israeli government, the trip is part of a larger multi-million dollar “Brand Israel” strategy meant to distract from the country’s ongoing 50-year military occupation of Palestinian lands and consistent violation of international law. Such trips often attempt to lure celebrities, U.S. politicians, Black and Brown Americans and even students in an effort to present a sanitized image of Israel.
In a powerful statement, Bennett announced he pulled out of the trip because he wouldn’t be “used in such a manner,” and reiterated his commitment to standing in solidarity with oppressed communities. Bennett’s and Stills’ decision to not only back out of the trip, but also to publicly denounce it, is an important and necessary act of solidarity.
After all, if the athletes had gone on the trip, they would have likely hung out on the beaches of Tel Aviv, visited the vibrant club scene, and dined at five star restaurants, all of which tell part of the story of Israel. But more important are the parts that they would have missed.
They wouldn’t have spoken to a mother whose fourteen-year-old child was arrested in the middle of the night, or the daughter who watched her father get shot by Israeli police because he looked “suspicious.” They wouldn’t have witnessed how Palestinians are prohibited from walking on the same side of the street as Israeli settlers in Hebron, or the wired nets that line the storefronts to prevent settlers from throwing trash on Palestinians as they walk past. They wouldn’t have spoken to the children in the refugee camp who were evicted from their homes which they watched bulldozers destroy to make way for new Jewish-only settlements. They wouldn’t have spoken to the farmers who stand in the back of trucks for hours waiting to pass through checkpoints, or the women who have been forced to give birth at checkpoints while trying to receive medical assistance. They wouldn’t have spoken to the Eritrean and Sudanese refugees who have been held in Israeli detainment camps. And they wouldn’t have spoken to the Afro Palestinians who have long standing roots in the region and deep cultural and emotional ties Black Americans. In short, they wouldn’t have seen anything close to the whole truth.
Shortly before their announcements to pull out of the trip, an open letter was released asking the NFL players to consider withdrawing from the delegation. The letter included signatures from renowned musicians, artists and social justice advocates, including Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and John Carlos, known for the iconic moment when he raised his fist in the air in a Black power salute during the 1968 Olympic medal ceremony. Urging players to consider the political ramifications of attending the trip, the letter drew on the undeniable connections between the struggles faced by Black and Brown communities in the U.S., and Palestinian, Afro Palestinian, Eritrean and Sudanese communities in Israel and Palestine.
When Bennett and Stills heard and heeded this call, they joined a long tradition of athletes, artists, musicians and everyday citizens who have used the time-honored tool of boycott to protest injustice everywhere from the segregated US South, to Apartheid South Africa, to the Trump White House.
People across the US today are refusing to normalize the abnormal, refusing to look the other way while the Trump administration tramples on the rights of people of color, immigrants, Muslims, and others. Musicians refused to perform at Trump’s inauguration, grassroots campaigns forced companies like Nordstrom to drop Ivanka Trump’s brand and Uber’s CEO to leave Trump’s advisory team. Along with Michael Bennett’s brother, New England Patriot Martellus Bennett, at least five other Patriots team members are taking the stand to boycott the traditional White House visit made by Super Bowl winners. This is what resistance, and solidarity, looks like.
More than a decade ago, Palestinians called on allies around the world to support their struggle for freedom, justice and equality by using boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) to pressure Israel to respect international law. Many faith groups and churches in the U.S. have done just that, including the United Methodists, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ, and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. So too have numerous academic, labor, and social justice groups, including Dream Defenders (which led a historic delegation to Palestine) and the Movement for Black Lives.
According to a recent poll, 60 percent of Democrats, and 46 percent of all Americans, would support sanctions or stronger action against Israel because of illegal settlement construction. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the extreme right in Israel emboldened by Trump’s administration, BDS as a political tactic is more necessary than ever to hold Israel accountable for their ongoing human rights abuses and disregard for international law.
Since Trump was sworn in, 6,000 new Jewish settlement units have been approved by Israel. In addition, Netanyahu announced he will establish the first entirely new settlement in more than 20 years. Beyond that, Israel’s parliament recently passed a bill legalizing under Israeli law dozens of so-called “outposts” on privately-owned Palestinian land.
Meanwhile, President Trump is explicitly drawing on Israeli policies -from militarized policing and racial profiling to walls designed to prevent refugees from entering the country- as part of his crackdown on the rights of the vulnerable.
Increasingly, police departments across the U.S. are going on trainings to Israel, or receiving trainings from the Israeli military. In some cases they’re also receiving weapons from Israel. The results we see unravel in the streets, as Black and Brown bodies are routinely shot down and harassed with little to no accountability. While it would unreasonable to blame Israel for state violence in the United States, the economic and military connections between the two nations demonstrate the need for deeper analysis and organized action.
In this increasingly volatile political climate, where freedom to dissent is being cracked down on in new and scary ways, it is more important than ever that we stand in solidarity with communities fighting oppression. When people are lucky enough to be in positions of power and influence, such as Bennett and Stills, it’s imperative they use their platforms to speak out against social injustice. Now is the time. Justice cannot wait.
Marc Lamont Hill is Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College. He is the author of Nobody: America’s War on the Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond.
Posts: 42919 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
I figured that I would eventually agree with Crystal. I see black power's META as a matter of FTRM Family, Temple, Reparations, Media.
Intersectionality without reciprocity is just people hanging out. You are speaking in front of the UN, why are you not talking about reparations? Intersectionality without reciprocity is post reparations fodder in a pre-reparations reality.
Its not to say we don't have some commonalities with Palestinians. A Palestinian American activist just died of supposed heart attack. He is like the fifth Furgeson activist to die. I wouldn't suspect a heart attack to be anything more than a heart attack but the other deaths looked like hitman and KKK slayings so I'm side eyeing this heart attack. Still, he is an example of a sliver of reciprocity so rest in power to Bassem Masri.
That said, I do agree with MLH. There should be one new state in place of Israel. Israel is a Zionist/white supremacist theocracy that should be replaced with something new, secular and free. Maybe compromise and call it Palisreal.
Posts: 1254 | From: howdy | Registered: Mar 2014
| IP: Logged |
posted
The majority of Jews in Israel are not of European extraction. They hail from North Africa, West Asia, and Ethiopia.
Arab military and cultural imperialism has disfigured North Africa and West Asia. Have no idea why blacks identify with invasion Arab settlers in West Asia. In the best of all possible worlds the Arab settlers from Arabia would be forced back to Arabia. Consider how the French colonial settlers in Algeria were forced to return to France.
In all of this, Islam exercises a pernicious hold of Africa north of the equator and has led to a massive alienation among Africans. Muslim Africans, the Hajj is more important than anything else--with huge amounts of money being spent on this useless ritual.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic