Former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill doubled down on the anti-Israel statements that got him fired from the network in a podcast on Thursday. He also claimed that many progressive members of Congress have privately agreed with him.
On Thursday, Hill reiterated his previous remarks during an interview with Mehdi Hasan on his Intercept podcast “Deconstructed.”
“If I had a dollar for every progressive member of Congress, for every progressive faculty member, for every progressive cable news or otherwise TV commentator who sent me a private message saying, ‘I agree with you,'” Hill said, according to The Free Beacon, “I’d have so much money.”
“You can almost hear the whispers in the message, ‘I agree with you, but, you know, stay strong, but this is why I don’t say anything,'” he continued.
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 09: Marc Lamont HIll and Scottie Beam attend the Being Mary Jane premiere screening and party on January 9, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET)
Hill was fired back in November after condoning Palestinian violence in a speech at the United Nations commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. (RELATED: CNN Contributor Condones Palestinian Violence Against Israelis)
“We must prioritize peace, but we must not romanticize or fetishize it. We must promote non-violence at every opportunity, but cannot endorse narrow politics that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in ethnic cleansing,” he stated. “Justice requires a Free Palestine from the River to the Sea.”
“From the river to the sea” is a political slogan used by Hamas and Palestinian nationalists who believe in eliminating the state of Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Hill is a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He teaches in the Media Studies and Production, Media & Communication department and kept his position despite calls for his termination over his anti-Israel comments.