No one in America dares to criticize Israel who hopes to survive in a job or profession. Anyone who ever doubts the toxic power and influence Israel has over US media, politics, academic and financial institutions should think twice. Criticizing Israel and its military and settlers’ occupation is not a crime, nor is anti-Semitism. Those who think so have a mental problem.
The immediate dismissal of Marc Lemont Hill by CNN comes after he made a statement at the UN in which he called for a free Palestine from sea to river, which to the sensitive Zionist forces in the US is deemed racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric which calls for Israel’s destruction.
No one in CNN or other major networks wants to hear any calls for justice for Israelis and for Palestinians. Marc Lemont Hill’s message was “a call for justice, both in Israel and for the West Bank/Gaza.”
He stated, “I support Palestinian freedom; I support Palestinian self-determination. I am deeply critical of Israeli policies and practices.”
What in blazes is so wrong and offensive to Zionist America in those words? Nothing.
Fifty blankety-blank years of armed settler occupation, over 550 humiliating security checkpoints which millions of Palestinians must face going through every day as they are processed like cattle. Fifty years of arbitrary arrest and administrative imprisonment for months and years without trial or public evidence, while over one million Palestinians have been “guests” of Israeli military jails. There have been tens of thousands of home demolitions under the pretense that the homes were “built without permits”, as Palestinians would have to wait for decades to get a home-building or remodeling license. But criminally trespassing settlers can simply seize Palestinian lands and build; they can raid towns and villages; desecrate churches and mosques. They can even set young teenage Palestinians on fire by forcing them to drink gasoline and then setting them on fire.
Recently Hollywood stars held a benefit dinner for the IDF, raising $33 million in one night. But not bothered or offended about 50 years of military occupation by Israel, unmoved by the cruelest military and longest occupation in modern history.