Marc Lamont Hill Fired From CNN After Controversial Speech on Israel, Defends Speech In Series of Tweets: “No Amount of Debate Will Change What I Actually Said Or What I Meant”

On Thursday, CNN announced in an email that the network had parted ways with its contributor, #MarcLamontHill. Although the network did not give a reason or explanation, the firing came after Hill called for countries to boycott Israel in solidarity with Palestinians. 

“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 his speech during a meeting at the United Nations for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Wednesday. 

While, the former correspondent also encouraged the audience to “promote non-violence,” and refrain from endorsing “a narrow politics of respectability that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in the face of state violence and ethnic cleansing, critics honed in on Hill’s “river to the sea” remark, which, according to NBC News, is code for the destruction of Israel.

However, Hill quickly fired back at critics in a series of tweets, defending his speech and his call for justice. 

“My reference to ‘river to the sea’ was not a call to destroy anything or anyone,” Hill said. “It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza. The speech very clearly and specifically said those things. No amount of debate will change what I actually said or what I meant.” 

“I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination,” Hill continued. “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.”