Marc Lamont Hill was an academic and activist that taught here at Temple University and was previously a political commentator for CNN. However, he was recently fired from that position for supposedly anti-Semitic comments.

What could those awful comments be? What could Hill have said that could cost him his job? Nothing other than stating that Arabs are people.

Hill was speaking before the UN about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He spoke about the human rights abuses committed by Israel and how Palestinians are not treated as full citizens in their own country.

He stated purely facts for which he was fired from CNN, and everyone from centrists to the far-right decreed his comments as "anti-Semitic."

Hill did not mention destroying or getting rid of Israel at all. He did not mention the Jewish people once.

He only stated that he believed that Israel should return to the borders it had prior to 1967 and encouraged boycotts on Israel until it ends its inhumane processes.

Hill, however, did say "free Palestine from the river to the sea." The Anti-Defamation League was quick to say that Hamas, the de facto government in the Gaza Strip that advocates for Israel's destruction, has made the saying one of their slogans.

People who argue this point must be very ignorant to the original, peaceful meaning of the phrase. It was originally uttered by Arabs who were being kicked off their land.

The bottom line is we can disagree on the conflict about Israel forever, but, the slandering of an academic and an activist with the purest intentions cannot be tolerated.

Anybody calling Hill an anti-Semite is slandering him and is likely failing to address the growing problem with real anti-Semitism in America.

CNN is a corporation and is allowed to fire whomever for whatever reason, but if being critical of a government can get you fired from an organization that is supposed to value a "free and independent press…" I shudder at the long-term implications.