Journalist Marc Lamont Hill reacted to a social media post by a Black Lives Matter chapter in Chicago earlier this month that received significant backlash online.
The now-deleted post on X, the website previously known as Twitter, showed the figure of a person with a parachute with a Palestinian flag attached to it over a legend that read, “I stand with Palestine,” according to a screenshot from the New York Post.
“That is all that is it!” the caption said.
BLM Chicago — one of many organizations using the Black Lives Matter slogan — was criticized for the post, which came after Hamas, a militant group, used paragliders during their surprise deadly attack on an Israeli music festival in early October that left hundreds dead. The BLM group appeared to apologize for the graphic the next day. However, the Anti-Defamation League made a public statement about the organization and other independent groups for their “support for Hamas’ invasion.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt took to Twitter to address his concerns.
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“The post shared in recent days by BLM chapters in Chicago & LA & other fringe groups, glorifying the Hamas terrorists who used hang gliders to infiltrate Israel, slaughtering over 1,000 innocents, is beyond sick & twisted. It’s antisemitic, dehumanizing & could prompt violence,” Greenblatt wrote in a lengthy thread on Oct. 11.
During a sit-down with “The Breakfast Club,” radio personality DJ Envy asked Hill about his opinion on the BLM organization’s post.
“I thought that was in poor taste. I don’t want to celebrate or romanticize the killing of civilians, so I didn’t like that,” Hill, host of Al Jazeera’s “UpFront,” said in the interview released on Oct. 17. “Standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people as they resist, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
The author and academic later added: “When I see somebody, whether it’s BLM or anyone else, romanticizing the killing of civilians, I say no. I say that’s wrong. I say that doesn’t help our cause. But I don’t want to pretend that the only strategy that Black folks have or the only strategy Palestinians have, or the only strategy that any people have, is nonviolence. This idea that Palestinians are supposed to just sit there as they get beaten, and shot and killed is ridiculous.”
On the program, he chimed in on DJ Vlad’s comments, calling out DJ Khaled, who is Palestinian-American, and rapper Drake, who is Jewish, for not speaking up on these issues. Vlad also doubled down on his stance a few days before during his appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” citing their influence.
“Hell yeah, they should say something,” Hill said. “Yes. More Khaled than Drake.”
“They never talk about social issues, ever,” Chalamagne Tha God said.
“I know, and I have an issue with that,” Hill added. “I don’t think every famous person has to say something about everything, but if your people are being exterminated, if your people are being executed, if your people are being killed — whatever the circumstances — I think you got to say something.”
