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<\/a><\/p>\nThe pro-Israel lobby\u2019s ongoing efforts to weaponise anti-Semitism has been dealt a major blow after a prestigious American university refused to sack one of its professors for showing solidarity with Palestine. Lobbyists inflicted a lot of pressure on the university after Marc Lamont Hill outraged Israel\u2019s supporters and was accused of anti-Semitism when he talked of a free Palestine \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d in a robust speech at the United Nations during a session on the organisation\u2019s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. As a result of lobbyists\u2019 complaints he was fired<\/a><\/strong><\/span> as a commentator on CNN<\/em> before his detractors moved to exert pressure on Temple University in Philadelphia where Lamont Hill is professor of media studies.<\/span><\/p>\n The academic turned to social media to thank everyone who had given him their support. \u201cSo many lessons,\u201d he wrote on Facebook. \u201cSo many thoughts. Too much to process right now. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone around the world who has offered support, love, advice, prayer, resources and more. This has been an impossibly difficult time for more reasons than I could possibly explain. Only your generosity has made this load bearable. In return, I offer my sincere gratitude and a commitment to fighting for those who have paid FAR GREATER prices than me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Led by the Anti-Defamation League, a variety of Zionist groups accused Professor Lamont Hill of calling for the destruction of Israel when he used the popular phrase \u201cfree Palestine from the river to the sea.\u201d This is a reference to historic Palestine mapped between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean prior to the creation of Israel in 1948. Although the UN Partition Plan \u2014 never accepted by the Palestinians themselves \u2014 allocated 54 per cent of the land to the Zionist state, Israel now occupies and controls, practically and legally, 100 per cent of historic Palestine<\/span><\/p>\n Lamont Hill defended his use of the phrase, describing it as \u201can invocation of a long history of political actors \u2014 liberal and radical, Palestinian and Israeli \u2014 who have called for their particular vision of justice in the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.\u201d He explained further that, \u201cJustice will come through a single bi-national democratic state that encompasses Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.\u201d This was seized upon by his critics as \u201cproof\u201d of what they believe was a call for the destruction of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n Patrick O\u2019Connor, the President of Temple University\u2019s Board of Trustees, said at the time: \u201cI\u2019m not happy. The board\u2019s not happy. The administration\u2019s not happy. People wanted to fire him right away \u2026 We\u2019re going to look at what remedies we have.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Another trustee of the university is also the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Leonard Barrack accused Lamont Hill of calling for \u201cthe destruction of the State of Israel in code words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The president of the Zionist Organisation of America added his weight to the campaign calling for the professor\u2019s dismissal. \u201cAs a Temple University alumnus from where I received two degrees,\u201d fumed Morton A Klein, \u201cI am especially shocked, embarrassed and ashamed that Mr Lamont Hill teaches at my alma mater and has a named Chair no less. His working at Temple can only hurt fundraising and support for the University. And it is immoral as well. There isn\u2019t a safe space large enough to get away from Lamont Hill. Fire Marc Lamont Hill!!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n According to the former US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, the academic\u2019s choice of words was \u201cdisgusting\u201d, while Israel\u2019s Consul General in New York, Dani Dayan, told journalists that, \u201cLamont Hill called for the elimination of the State of Israel from the map.\u201d The diplomat also took to Twitter and accused the professor of being a \u201cracist, a bigot, an anti-Semite. The fact that he is all this while in the payroll of @CNN and [Temple University] is appalling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The American Association of University Professors rallied to the support of Lamont Hill on the grounds that a professor cannot be punished by the university, for what is said outside the institution.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, Marc Lamont Hill is not the first academic to be targeted by pro-Israel pressure groups. They regard university campuses as a battleground to target and attack all individuals and groups who show solidarity with Palestine and its people, and criticise Israel, its apartheid policies and its contempt for international laws and conventions.<\/span><\/p>\n The communications director of Jewish Voice for Peace welcomed the announcement of the \u201csurprising turnabout\u201d that Temple University will not fire or discipline Professor Lamont Hill. The organisation was putting the finishing touches to an advertising campaign in defence of the academic when the news came through on Tuesday night. \u201cWe have literally just sent art for the ad but now are cancelling it,\u201d explained Granate Kim. \u201cI cannot be happier for Professor Lamont Hill. He is an incredible educator and defender of justice and equality and now we know the university is not bending to false charges of anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n