Al Jazeera host and CUNY professor Marc Lamont Hill criticized the media for “incriminating” Hamas as terrorists as a way to delegitimize the group instead of calling it a “government organization” despite its control of Gaza. .
Last week, Hill appeared on Briahna Joy Gray’s “Bad Faith” podcast after hosting a Hamas spokesperson on her Al Jazeera English (AJE) show “UpFront.”
Hill suggested that Hamas would be willing to talk to other news organizations, but that the media refuses to do so due to the group’s terrorist status.
“I’m not convinced that they are not willing to talk to these other networks. It seems to me that other corporate media outlets have made the decision not to want to talk to them, and part of the reason is because they have decided to frame them as a terrorist network,” Hill said.
“And when Netanyahu and others say they’re no different than…ISIS, then it becomes…you wouldn’t do an exclusive with ISIS on CNN, so they’re not going to do one with Hamas,” Hill continued. “And I think it’s part of a larger project of framing Hamas not as a government organization – even if you think that what happened on October 7 was an act of terrorism – to frame them as a terrorist organization instead of a government, in place of a government. that a democratically elected government and/or political party makes it easier to avoid political and diplomatic solutions.”
Hill repeatedly insisted that he did not support Hamas, but said he understands “what happens when you take away people’s political choices and isolate them.”
Al Jazeera host Marc Lamont Hill criticized the media for “incriminating” Hamas as a terrorist group. AP Photo
October 7 was the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, when Hamas invaded Israel and killed at least 1,400 soldiers and civilians, including women, children and the elderly.
Hundreds more were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
Most news organizations in the United States have referred to Hamas as a terrorist organization, but other foreign outlets, such as the BBC initially, refused to do so.
BBC world affairs editor John Simpson explained to viewers: “Terrorism is a loaded word that people use to refer to something they morally disapprove of. It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn: who are the good guys and who are the bad guys… We don’t take sides. We don’t use loaded words like “evil” or “coward.” We don’t talk about ‘terrorists’.”
Following an overwhelming backlash, the British broadcaster was forced to do an about-face and recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization instead of referring to the group as “militants.”
Rescuers in a house hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on November 2, 2023.Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images
Hill was fired from CNN in 2018 when he called for a “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” widely seen as a declaration for the elimination of Israel, during a speech at the United Nations. He addressed the controversy on the podcast with Gray.
“People who criticized me would argue that I was echoing a specific chant of Hamas, who, when they formed in 1987, said: ‘We do not support a two-state solution.’ Good? “We are a liberation organization and we want all of historic Palestine to be returned to the Palestinian people,” which was, frankly, the default position of the Arab world between 1948 and 1967, true, was that all of historic Palestine would be returned to the Arabs,” Hill told Gray.
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel.
“When Hamas says… ‘from the river to the sea,’ for them, the argument is that if they are asking for the whole land to return then that has to mean that all Jews are being pushed into the sea, that all Jews must be killed for this to happen. That is his analysis of Hamas. Now… when I say: ‘Free Palestine from the river to the sea,’ I was not echoing the Hamas statutes. When you go to any demonstration about ‘Free Palestine’, when you go to a demonstration for Palestinian rights, you will hear ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’… these are not calls to kill Jews. These are calls for Palestine and Palestinians to have freedom, security, dignity and self-determination in all areas of historic Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” he stated.
Protesters in Tel Aviv call on Hamas to release Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 terrorist attacks. AP Photo/Oded Balilty
“Why is it important to say that entire region? Well, because those in the West Bank need the occupation to end. Those in Gaza need the effective occupation to end. They need the siege to end too,” Hill said.
“So, ‘from the river to the sea’ is a call for justice in all regions of historic Palestine. “It is not a call from Hamas,” Hill continued. “It would be like if you said ‘Black Power’ and someone said, ‘Well, I can look up the new Black Panther Party’s statements about, you know, killing white people’… and they said ‘Black Power,’ and therefore Briahna echoes a new call from the Black Panther Party.’”
“Most of the people I know who ask for ‘the river to the sea’ are asking, not for the application of Hamas’ statutes… I have not met anyone who thinks that,” he added.
A man mourns at the funeral of Israeli combat medic Shay Arvas, killed in the Gaza Strip.REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
In 2018, when he initially faced backlash, Hill wrote: “In my speech, I spoke of the need to return to the pre-1967 borders, to grant full rights to Palestinian citizens of Israel, and to allow the right of return. No part of this is a call to destroy Israel. It is absurd at first glance.”
Neither Hill nor Al Jazeera English immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Several members of the traditional media previously worked at Al Jazeera, the Qatari-run news organization known for its hostile coverage of Israel.
Among them are MSNBC weekend anchors Ali Velshi, Ayman Mohyeldin and Mehdi Hasan, who made headlines for their anti-Israel stance during the network’s coverage of the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attacks.
Notably, Hasan previously hosted “UpFront” before Hill, who took over the AJE show in 2021.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn