CNN parted ways on Friday with contributor Marc Lamont Hill after comments he made in support of the Palestinian cause and after he called for a boycott of Israel.
"Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN," a spokesperson said in a brief statement published on the US television channel's website.
Hill, a professor of media studies at Philadelphia's Temple University who had been a recurring political commentator on CNN, called for countries to boycott and divest from Israel in the Wednesday speech given for the UN's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
"We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea," Hill stressed.
Some have linked the proposal to the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Hill addressed the issue on Twitter, writing that "my reference to 'river to the sea' was not a call to destroy anything or anyone."
"It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza," he tweeted. "The speech very clearly and specifically said those things."
"I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination. I am deeply critical of Israeli policy and practice," he continued. "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."
