Speaking on “The Breakfast Club,” Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill asserted that Fox News host Sean Hannity and former host Bill O’Reilly were as extremist and racist as anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan, and that the Israeli government bore responsibility for American police killing people.
Lamont Hill professed ignorance when he was asked if he was fired by CNN for his anti-Semitism, asserting, “I don’t know. They still haven’t told me that. They never told me it was anti-Semitic and it wasn’t anti-Semitic.”
Lamont Hill was fired after his comments at the United Nations, when he spoke of a free Palestine “from the river to the sea,” a phrase commonly used by anti-Semites to describe the extermination of the Jews living in Israel.
Asked if the phrase was offensive to the Jewish community, Lamont Hill replied, “I haven’t found that to be the case … I think there is a small sector of people who have a particular politics about that phrase.”
A host interjected, “That’s a lot more radical than your speech.”
Lamont Hill replied, “Right.” He added, “I want every part of the region to be free.” Lamont Hill did not mention that areas of Israel under the control of the Arab population are Judenrein. He continued, “There’s no way that black folk can be free if there’s folk on the continent that are unfree, in Latin America are unfree, or in Palestine that are unfree because we’re all oppressed by the same system.”
Host: “Many people are comparing this to apartheid, what’s going on in Palestine.”
Lamont Hill stated bluntly: “It is apartheid.”
Lamont Hill segued to discussing his association with the anti-Semitic and racist preacher Louis Farrakhan, saying that Farrakhan was no more extremist than Fox News host Sean Hannity and former host Bill O’Reilly:
But for some reason, if you meet with Minister Farrakhan and you don’t throw him away wholesale, then you’re castigated in a way that doesn’t happen with anybody else. I worked on Fox News for many years. No one ever said, “Why are you meeting, why are you sitting with Bill O’Reilly? Why are you sitting with Sean Hannity? Why are you sitting with Ann Coulter?” No one ever said that.
And I’m not comparing Farrakhan to them except to say that if you think they’re extremist, well I think they’re extremist. So why is only set of people untouchable? Why does every black leader have to ritually denounce Farrakhan in order to sustain a position? That doesn’t happen to anyone else. Again, Mr. Farrakhan is my brother. We don’t agree on some issues that I’ve mentioned.
Later in the broadcast, Lamont Hill attempted to blame the Israeli government for violence committed against the black community by police departments, asserting, “I can fight for black people here and struggle abroad but again, there’s a relationship between the two. The New York City police — they’re killing us but they’re trained by Israeli security forces.”
One host asked, “Really?”
Lamont Hill: “Yes! They’re being trained, New York City police and in other cities as well. So there’s a connection between the two. So I can’t stop one without the other. … There’s a relationship.”
A host commented that people would use the headline: “Mark Lamont Hill says that NYPD Police Officers are Killing People and They’re Trained By Israeli Jewish Security Forces.”
Lamont Hill responded by trying to make a distinction between the Israeli government and Jews, claiming there was a connection: “That’s what they’ll say, and now remember, I ain’t talking Jewish people; I’m talking about the Israeli state. This has nothing to do with Jewish people. I’m talking about the Israeli government.”
H/T The Algemeiner