A Palestinian boy holding his national flag looks at clashes with Israeli security forces near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel east of Gaza City. Picture: AFP / Mahmud Hams.
US network CNN said Thursday it severed ties with a contributor after he made controversial comments pertaining to Israel and Palestine at a UN event.
“Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,” a spokesperson said in a brief statement published on the television channel’s website.
Hill, who is a professor at Philadelphia’s Temple University, had one day prior called to “free Palestine from the river to the sea” — a proposal some have linked to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
He made the remarks while speaking at a meeting at the United Nations held for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Hill addressed the issue on Twitter, writing that “my reference to ‘river to the sea’ was not a call to destroy anything or anyone.”
“It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza,” he tweeted. “The speech very clearly and specifically said those things.”
“I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination. I am deeply critical of Israeli policy and practice,” he 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.”
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