Intimidation Will Not Stop Us in Our Fight — We Stand with Marc Lamont Hill

November 30, 2018

The following statement was co-authored by the Palestinian Youth Movement and the SWANA Alliance. You can take action now to demand Marc Lamont Hill’s reinstatement by emailing CNN through this form here and calling CNN at this number, (404) 827-1500 (option 3). We’ve included a call-in script below.

As Palestinian, Arab and SWANA youth, we are writing in support of Marc Lamont Hill and his righteous support of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and self-determination at the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday, November 28, 2018 for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The Zionist backlash he is facing is slanderous and a continuation of selective suppression of speech. Among the actions taken against Marc has been the CNN’s cowardly response, stating that he is “no longer under contract” with the news organization. We wholeheartedly condemn any and all intimidation to silence Marc, which reflects the United States history of targeting people of color, specifically Black folks, for their political activism. CNN claims to champion “facts first,” but turns away from honest reporting on Palestine. This comes as no surprise, as CNN repeatedly demonizes and spews racist rhetoric about Palestinians, even while they are being massacred, displaced, and incarcerated by the settler-colonial entity, Israel. We encourage any and all other institutions and organizations that employ Marc or use his labor to refrain from taking the same unjust actions.

We commend Marc Lamont Hill for taking a courageous position at the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People’s. Recognizing that the Zionist settler-colonial state cannot be both a democratic state for all of its residents and also a Jewish ethno-state as the political ideology of Zionism necessitates, Marc called for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea. Marc has participated in and organized several delegations to Palestine with revolutionary leaders of Black liberation including Dream Defenders and BYP 100, and has been working in solidarity with the Palestinian community for several years. We honor his commitment to racial justice and liberation and commit to showing up for him.

It is apparent that those who seek to envision the full equality of Palestinian human rights, liberation and right of return face large repercussions of punishment. These attacks ultimately undermine not only media coverage of the Palestinian struggle in the West, but the entire profession of journalism, serving to erase both the political movements journalists aim to capture and the oppression that journalists of conscience expose. In the larger context, the right to Palestinian sovereignty and existence has been and continues to be denied, the right of return for all Palestinians who have been displaced are made into refugees time and time again, outside and within the homeland, and the demand for all of historic Palestine to return to its indigenous population is not even a thought in the minds of colonizers, oppressors, and Israel apologists. The liberation of all peoples, the freedom of movement, and the right of return are the root causes of contention in the face of Zionism, Zionist backlash and Israeli institutions, companies, and aggression. These are the same reasons Marc is being targeted for his message, because he dares to challenge the status quo. His statements at the UN are just a glimpse of the history in which our people have suffered under the colonial state of Israel for the past 70-years.

Globally, people have stood at intersections of building with one another, working towards creating a world that we want to see. Watching Marc convey his support for a liberated world free of state violence exemplifies the power of joint struggle and we follow his lead in this effort.

The backlash against Marc Lamont Hill is an attack on Black and Palestinian liberation movements in an attempt to crush and silence those who dare to question the Zionist settler colonial entity, Israel, and bring this consciousness to the mainstream. The targeting of Black people who commit to joint struggle with Palestinians is a manifestation of the intersections of global systems of colonialism, anti-blackness and oppression. We are committed to dismantling these systems.

We condemn the termination of Marc Lamont Hill and reaffirm his tireless pursuit of justice as essential to liberation movements around the world. We stand with Marc Lamont Hill.

Signed,

Palestinian Youth Movement

SWANA Alliance

Black4Palestine

AF3IRM

Arabs4BlackPower