Marc Lamont Hill is a writer and professor who was fired from CNN for speaking about justice for Palestine at the United Nation’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. In this interview with The Breakfast Club, Hill recounts his experience and his continued belief that standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and standing against antisemitism “are not competing claims.”
“I stand in solidarity with Palestinian people, but I also stand against antisemitism. Those aren’t competing claims. You can love Jewish people and say that Jewish lives are not worth more than Palestinian lives, that Israeli lives are not worth more than Palestinian lives… That everybody who criticizes Israel doesn’t hate Jews, and I would hope that most don’t.
I understand there’s a deep pain, and a deep frustration and a deep memory of the Holocaust. And so we must always make sure that people are safe, that minority populations are not vulnerable. I agree with that 1000%. That’s why I say we don’t have to choose between Jewish security and Palestinian freedom. And the honest answer is, people don’t want to say this, until there is complete freedom for everyone, nobody’s safe.
There is a very real concern that Jewish brothers and sisters have about safety. And throughout history, Jews have been oppressed, they’ve been marginalized, they have been killed for being Jewish. And so one of the things you saw in the late 1800’s… they said look, we need to unite, we need to understand that Jews anywhere are of the same sort and that we need to find a homeland and a Jewish state to protect us, because if we’re minorities here then we won’t be safe… If we have a state that’s ours then we can be safe and protected. That’s the argument. And I don’t think that’s a bad argument. The problem is that your safety can’t come at the expense of mine. And so we have to find a way to keep people safe and protected on the one hand but on the other not lose sight of the fact that Palestinian babies and Palestinian lives are worth just as much.”
Video title: Marc Lamont Hill On Getting Fired From CNN, His Remarks On Palestine + More
Created by: Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM
Video length: 00:38:32
Date: December 14, 2018
Video link: https://youtu.be/U_5k6AJoNDs
