EXCLUSIVE: Temple U confirms Marc Lamont Hill still employed after Israel remarks
CNN contributor and professor Marc Lamont Hill is “no longer under contract” with the popular news outlet after calling for a “free Palestine from river to the sea.” Hill is still employed, however, with Temple University, the school confirmed to Campus Reform Thursday.
Hill made the comment Wednesday during a speech at the United Nations where he discussed boycotting Israel to support and “free” Palestine.
“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 declared.
CNN terminated its relationship with Hill Thursday, stating: “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,” according to Mediaite.
The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) referred to Hill’s comments as a “senseless promotion of violence” and demanded Hill’s relationships with CNN and Temple University be terminated, Israel National News reported.
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“With his racist views and unabashed denigration of Israel, Dr. Hill does not deserve to be given any sort of platform that facilitates the dissemination of his bigotry, whether it be on Cable TV or in a classroom,” the NCYI declared. “With such hate-filled views that are antithetical to basic human decency, Marc Lamont Hill should not be rewarded by serving as a pundit or a professor, and both CNN and Temple have a duty to dismiss Dr. Hill and renounce his anti-Semitic beliefs.”
Hill has since taken to Twitter to elaborate on his controversial statement.
“In my remarks, which you clearly didn’t hear, I was talking about full citizenship rights IN Israel and a redrawing of the pre-1967 borders,” Hill wrote.
“I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination. I am deeply critical of Israeli policy and practice,” Hill continued in a later post. “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.”
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Temple University Media Relations confirmed to Campus Reform Thursday that Hill is currently employed by the university.
“Marc Lamont Hill has been quoted extensively over the last 24 hours,” Assistant Strategic Communications Dean Shannon McLaughlin Rooney said. “Marc Lamont Hill does not represent Temple University and his views are his own. However, we acknowledge that he has a constitutionally protected right to express his opinion as a private citizen.”
Hill has not responded to Campus Reform’s request for comment.
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