Marc Lamont-Hill Really Cares

 

I care!   Marc Lamont Hill cares – and he speaks out – teaching, writing, and helping us learn and grow.   Denial – is an option only for those whose fears and traumas – or their Hatred – hide reality.  Unfortunately – most of the leadership of the U.S. and a (decreasing over time) majority of USians – remain ignorant, allowing the Killing and Wounding – physically and emotionally of far, far too many Palestinian People to continue and currently to grow.  Hatred and Fear – feeds on itself!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Lamont_Hill

https://www.marclamonthill.com/

https://nypost.com/2023/08/29/cuny-bigwig-who-hired-pro-palestinian-professor-marc-lamont-hill-leaving-job/

CUNY bigwig who hired pro-Palestinian professor Marc Lamont Hill leaving job

By 

Carl Campanile and

 

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Published Aug. 29, 2023

 Updated Aug. 29, 2023, 4:12 p.m. ET

The embattled City University of New York president who sparked a backlash by hiring controversial pro-Palestinian professor Marc Lamont Hill is leaving the job.

Robin Garrell, who headed CUNY’s Graduate Center for three years, will step down at the end of September, the school’s chancellor announced this week.

“CUNY will appoint an interim president in the coming weeks and launch a national search for her successor in the near future,” Chancellor Matos Rodriguez said in a statement.

“In the meantime, we congratulate President Garrell on her accomplishments, thank her for her service to the Graduate Center and CUNY, and wish her well in her future endeavors,” Rodriguez wrote.

Garrell came under fire earlier this month when she hired Hill, a 44-year-old educator who ruffled feathers in the past for his verbal attacks on Israel and antisemitic views — even getting fired by CNN over his fiery rhetoric.

Garrell’s pending ouster came as welcome news to Hill’s critics.

“This is wonderful news,” former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said. “The ouster of the CUNY Graduate Center president sends a powerful message to CUNY campus officials to stop hiring Jew haters.”

CUNY Graduate Center President Robin Garrell will step down at the end of September, the school said. Garrell came under fire after she hired controversial pro-Palestinian professor Marcus Lamont Hill last month.Alex IrklievskyCUNY professor Marcus Lamont Hill has come under fire for voicing antisemitic and pro-Palestinian views in the past and was fired from CNN for making an incendiary speech about Israel in 2018. He was hired at CUNY this month.Marc Lamont Hill/Facebook

“But this is just a first step,” Hikind said. “Marc Lamont Hill has to go, too.”

City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn) agreed.

“That Marc Lamont Hill was even considered as a professor at CUNY is reprehensible,” Vernikov said in a statement. “While I must credit the CUNY chancellor for quickly making sure the president who made this awful decision RESIGNS, every day that Marc Lamont Hill keeps his job at CUNY is a stain on this institution. He must be next.

“Hill must be relieved from his post immediately. I will work tirelessly to make sure it happens.”

Hill did not immediately respond to an email from The Post seeking comment.

The media professor and former network pundit was booted from CNN after his speech about Israel incensed the Anti-Defamation League and other groups.

The speech, delivered for the United Nation’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinean people, called for other nations to boycott Israel.

City University of New York Graduate School has been at the center of controversy, including the hiring of pro-Palestinian professor Marcus Lamont Hill and inviting law school grad Fatima Mohammed, who delivered an anti-Israel speech.(Kevin C Downs for New York Post)CUNY professor Marcus Lamont Hill, who has been criticized for pro-Palestinian and antisemitic comments in the past, sparked controversy when he was hired at the school this year. He said his past comments have been misunderstood.

“My reference to ‘river to the sea’ was not a call to destroy anything or anyone,” Hill said on X, formerly known as Twitter, after getting the boot by the network.. “It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza. The speech very clearly and specifically said those things.”

“I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination,” he said. “I do not support anti-Semitism, killing Jewish people, or any of the other things attributed to my speech. I have spent my life fighting these things.”

The Hill controversy is just the latest to dog the city college and came just three months after CUNY Law School graduate Fatima Mohammed delivered an incendiary commencement speech blasting Israel

Among her fiery remarks to fellow grads, Mohammed accused Israel of encouraging “lynch mobs” and carrying out violence against Palestinians and calling the NYPD fascist.

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https://www.georgemarx.org/2019/03/dr-marc-lamont-hill-american-muslims.html

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, American Muslims For Palestine and Respect

March 04, 2019

The American Muslims For Palestine's Chicago Chapter Annual Dinner on March 3, 2019 was a most significant event for me.   I am a white, Jewish man, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace - Chicago, seeking a better world for Jews, Palestinians, Black people and others. 

Most of my father's family lives in Israel.   My great-uncle S.Y. Agnon was Israel's first nobel laureate and is a beloved, well-known figure to (virtually) all Israeli Jews.   While I have opposed Israeli government policies towards Palestinians for over 30 years, only now am I really seriously trying to help bring about positive change.

I came last evening hoping to hear inspiring words from Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, a man I greatly admire.   I experienced Dr. Hill's brilliance and warm heart far more than I could have hoped for.  I also was welcomed and loved by the warmth of many members of the greater Chicago Muslims for Palestine, who gave me far, far more than I could possibly have imagined.

 Respect is important to me.   I was shown so much from so many people.  I am thankful!  I am blessed!

 Dr. Marc Lamont Hill gave a powerful, impassioned speech!   He spoke directly to Palestinian Muslims.   His speech was far different than his incredible November 29, 2019 speech at the United Nations.  where he spoke to all of us.   While Dr. Hill did not speak directly to me as an American Jew, his words resonated in their inclusivity.   He explicity made clear that he was not speaking against Jews and white people.  Dr. Hill was very clear that Israeli governmental policy is the problem.

 

Dr. Hill's love for the Palestinian people was made very clear in the speech.   He also spoke strongly about the importance of both Black (and White) people supporting Palestinians and for Palestinians to support the struggles Black people including in cities like Chicago and Detroit.   His words were powerful, emphasizing non-violent struggles that may of necessity take more than our own lifetimes to succeed.

 

Equally significant to me was how well we were treated by both our hosts of American Muslims for Palestine and the others who attended the dinner.    Our hosts included both women and men of varying ages.    Many, if not most of the women's heads were covered.   I surmised that they were devout Muslims.   References to the Muslim religion were made throughout the presentation.

The people I met were far, far more caring of us than I could have imagined they would be.   We were shown to our table by several very helpful people.   Before the proceedings begun, a man came to our table thanking us as Jewish Voice for Peace Members for doing our work.    The American Muslims for Palestine Annual Report in its page on the Chicago Chapter included a picture showing Jewish Voice for Peace members demonstrating with Palestinians.

 

 

While many people we met were exceptional individuals, they were also wonderful in talking with us, in the varied parts of the presentation and in other ways .  This pointed clearly to the lies we face daily of the violent, not to be trusted Arabs, who allegedly prevent peace in Israel.   Yes, there are extremists who kill, but they are dwarfed by far more who seek a just, lasting peace.   It was very sad for me to hear that the "Volunteer for the Year" had never been in Palestine.   It was also uplifting to hear and feel the warmth and spirit of so many.

I am reminded of stories I've heard in the past.    I remember hearing of Palestinians in 1948, who warned neighboring Jews, preventing them from being killed.   I am reminded of the story one of my Israeli relatives told me circa 1980 in Jerusalem.   Her sister in Tel Aviv lived in a protected world where she spoke primarily German with her peers and English with her nieces and nephews and those younger.   Her husband and she had a fancy dress shop in Jerusalem dating back to well before the 1948 war.   She told me of how their customers had been both well off Palestinians and Jews who wanted custom made women's apparel.

My cousin told me of how in 1967, after the Six Day War, an older Arab man came to her shop, asking for her husband.   She told him that he had died.   The man wept.  She hadn't recognized him. He had been their porter in the store, until the War separated him,  putting him in then Jordanian run East Jerusalem.   My relative spoke admiringly of how this man insisted on carrying her bags when she went into the Old City until he died several years later.   He would not take any money from her.

I can not possibly understand the loss that Palestinians have faced for over 70 years losing their homeland.   I do admire their dignity in continuing the struggle for justice through (mostly) non-violent resistance.  I hope that a lasting, just peace will be achieved sooner, rather than later.

Thank you!

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https://www.georgemarx.org/2021/05/progressives-palestine-book-review.html

 

Progressives? - Palestine - a Book Review

May 01, 2021

 

EXCEPT FOR PALESTINE: The Limits of Progressive Politics by: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick is a must-read for anyone seriously concerned about how Israel treats Palestinians and/or open to hearing about it.   The authors are thorough and direct in addressing the relevant issues related primarily to Israel, Palestinians and The United States.

Repeatedly throughout the book the unquestioning support of most of the United States political forces for Israeli government policies is obvious.   Our total lack of concern for Palestinians is similarly shown.

The Palestinians must say the right things over and over again.  The more they try, the , more they doom themselves to less and less.  Even when Palestinian leadership seemingly does the right things, it is never enough.

The weaknesses of both the “radical” Hamas and the “moderate” PLO leadership is evident through much of the book.   The failures of American presidents and Congress to look more than at simple propaganda is repeatedly self-evident.  

One key point is that though President Trump was more direct, and said many unguardedly extreme statements, most of what he did fit in with what his predecessors had done.

It was during the comparatively progressive presidency of Barack Obama – seen by many as the most favorable to the Palestinian cause since Jimmy Carter more than three decades earlier – that negotiations collapsed under the weight of years of collective frustration.  The Palestinians had become fed up with a quarter century of talks that always prioritized Israeli concerns over their own.  As these talks dragged on with no end in sight, Israeli settlement constructed increased exponentially, and the occupation become ever more repressive. (p.6-7)

It is important to note that Israel does not demand that Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States, Australia or any other country recognize it as a Jewish state. This demand is unique to the Palestinians.  (p.37)

The authors note the critical importance to Palestinians of having a right to return to the land where 750,000 (mostly by now ancestors) were driven out in 1948.  Strongly related is the creation of true  equality.  Israeli Jews fear losing their homes.  They also fear a loss of their lifestyle sharing “their” country  in more than token ways.

These specific grievances included:

Israel’s construction of the wall in the West Bank, in areas well beyond its internationally recognized border,

Continued expansion of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank,

Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and the deep concern over potential of large parts or even all of the West Bank (16),

The growing global Palestinian refugee population, (and)

Israel’s discrimination against its own Arab, largely Palestinian citizens.

On the basis of these grievances, this assortment of civil society groups called for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) … (p.54)

BDS is a useful boogeyman for the Israeli and American right wings allowing them to expand their assaults on democracy while advancing the narrative that “the whole world is against Israel”(9) (p.79)

For self-identifying progressives it is tempting to frame President Trump as a deviation from the political status quo.   With regard to the Middle East, such framing allows us to remain unaccountable for decades of giving left-wing support for – or at best tepid opposition to – policies that have undermined the possibility of freedom, dignity, safety, and self-determination for the Palestinian people. (p.110)

When Israelis speak, sometimes bombastically, about the destruction of their state, they don’t always mean by bombs and missiles; sometimes they are referring to being outnumbered by Palestinians as citizens, with the political power that would entail.  While one hesitates to call that fear justified, it is certainly true that even the barest democratic structure would be strained in trying to maintain a state as an expression of a particular ethnic group if that group represents a minority of the state’s citizens. (p.146)

As Palestinian-American scholar Rashid Khalidi points out, the current conditions in Gaza amount to collective punishment. … Such collective punishment is always self-defeating.  More to the point, collective punishment is a war crime.(124) (p.149)

To move beyond the current limits, progressives must embrace a more principled politics, one that begins by recognizing the fundamental humanity of Palestinians. (p.155)

(related to the above) Only from this place can equal human, civil, individual, and national rights for both Israelis and Palestinians be achieved. (p.156)

(referring to American progressives) We can push Israel to allow the people of Gaza the freedom to rebuild their economy.  We can put real pressure on Israel to stop expanding its settlements, and to allow Palestinian towns to grow, as well as allow the free movement of Palestinians in the West Bank.  We can make it clear that our democratic values demand that we support Palestinians having the same rights to a national existence as Israelis do, and the same right to live in peace and security. (p. 158)

Plittnick and Lamont Hill – are most effective in limiting their focus to clear, concise areas. Through this they devastatingly indirectly (mostly)  show the direct relevance to Palestinian rights to the Black Lives Movement.  

Israel is an apartheid state!   As a Jew, I am ashamed!   We, Jews, have turned from being the victims to the oppressors.   We remain largely silent, while things get worse and worse.  Israel and the U.S. have made it nearly impossible to have a two-state solution because of our silence. 

What will we do?  

1.)         A massive change – to make a two-state solution possible – perhaps not impossible?

2.)         A single- democratic state – not Jewish, not Palestinian – mutual respect?

3.)         A “confederation” – combining parts of 1.) and 2.) (unlikely to be possible, in my mind)?

or

4.)         Try – to hold on – an Apartheid State – where Jewish Israeli’s will continue to live in fear of Palestinians – who will become a growing majority without basic rights?

I wish – that we would face the realities – move through our fears – and move positively ahead.  Palestinians – are not going to have revenge, as we have had and continue to have with them.    They lack the military power.  They lack the police the power.  

More importantly, they’ve shown that they have hearts, despite all that they’ve faced.  They want to work positively for something that they and we have never had; a just peace.  – Read this book – please!

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http://www.workingtowardsendingracism.org/2020/10/nobody-casualties-of-americas-war-on.html

NOBODY: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond- Marc Lamont Hill

October 23, 2020

This is an excellent, well researched book explaining in detailed ways how Black People continue to face systemic racism in a wide variety of ways.    Professor Hill gives numerous examples supporting his conclusions, showing how racism permeates the life of Black People, through "the law" and the prejudices of white people.   

Few books I have read have the depth of development of the basic theme in such a detailed, methodical way, while humanizing the lives of the many millions of people who are significantly affected.   Really understanding how poor People of Color face day-in-day-out battles to simply live a basic life is helped greatly by Hill's writing.   

Marc Lamont Hill clearly shows important parts of the lives of Black People being caught in the "justice system" (sic).

Professor Hill's book is particularly appropriate, given the major killings of 2020 and the resultant responses of the anti-racism movement and the reaction against it.