What Justice Requires: in Support of Palestine and Marc Lamont Hill

“Regarding the question of Palestine, beyond words we must ask the question, what does justice require? To truly engage in acts of solidarity, we must make our words flesh. Our solidarity must be more than a noun. Our solidarity must become a verb.”

-Marc Lamont Hill, speaking to the United Nations, November 28, 2018

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Black for Palestine expresses our full support for journalist and professor Marc Lamont Hill and condemns CNN's decision to fire him for speaking in support of Palestinian human rights.

Marc was the sole representative of civil society invited to speak at the United Nations’ International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 28. By the following day, Zionist groups including the Anti Defamation League alleged that Marc was an anti-Semite and called on CNN to drop Marc as a political commentator. The corporate news outlet fired him a few hours later.

Marc has been an outspoken advocate for human rights for all people. His most notable work has been his advocacy for Palestinian rights and for Black people in the U.S. settler state. He was one of the only voices on CNN, Black or otherwise, with a commitment to speaking truth to power.

Groups like the Anti Defamation League and CNN claim to be liberal supporters of “civil rights” and “free speech,” except when it comes to the actual liberation of oppressed people, whether they are Palestinian or Black. The ADL’s attack on Marc Lamont Hill fits into a longer legacy of Zionists attacking Black activists for their stances on Palestine, including SNCC in 1967, the Black Panther Party, and UN ambassador Andrew Young, who was fired from his position for speaking to the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1979.

At the end of his speech at the UN, Marc said “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea.” Zionists claimed this comment was anti-Semitic and suggested that Marc was advocating for violence against Jewish people. This is akin to the people who think “Black Lives Matter” is a call to kill or destroy white people.

Criticizing Israel is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. The Israeli occupation state (like the US settler state) is a political entity, not a religion or a people. Calling for the end of systems that have murdered, expelled and segregated innocent people is not anti-Semitism or reverse racism, it's justice.

Zionists and white supremacists are uncomfortable with the phrases “Free Palestine” or “Black Lives Matter” because they understand that Israel and the US are built on racism and oppression. They implicitly understand that righting these wrongs requires them to give up their privileges, including access to land, wealth and social power.

As other commenters have pointed out, we wish violence and racism against Black and Palestinian people was taken as seriously as allegations of anti-semitism. We live in a world that murders and subjugates us on a daily basis. Our own cries for justice are ignored or distorted by the media and politicians who justify our oppression.

Zionism and white supremacy are incompatible with human rights. Marc Lamont Hill spoke on a moral obligation to criticize American and Israeli state violence. His demonstrates what solidarity means as a verb and not just a noun. 

We close with the closing remarks of his speech: "As we stand here on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the tragic commemoration of the Nakba, 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. "

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View a full transcript of Marc's remarks here or watch the video below: