CNN drops Temple professor Marc Lamont Hill after comments on Israel

CNN  cut ties with Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill on Thursday after he made controversial comments referencing Israel in a speech to the United Nations.

"Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN," a spokesperson confirmed in a short statement.

During the Wednesday speech, Hill encouraged countries to boycott Israel, calling for a "free Palestine from the river to the sea."

"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 said.

The phrase — used by anti-Israel terror groups, including Hamas, according to The Hill — sparked outrage and drew swift criticism from a number of organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and National Council of Young Israel, which called for Hill's firing in the wake of his "virulent anti-Semitism."

On Twitter, Hill, who has contributed to the Inquirer and Daily News, called the response to his comments "absurd on its face."

He pushed back against the criticism, saying he did not support anti-Semitism and the "river to the sea" reference was "a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza."

The Temple media professor does not represent the Philadelphia school and his views are his own, the university wrote in a statement to The Hill.

The Zionist Organization of America condemned Temple for its statement, and urged the university "to strongly condemn Marc Lamont Hill's dangerous public calls for violence against Israelis and the destruction of Israel, and to fire Hill immediately or at least suspend him and remove him from the prestigious Steve Charles Chair that he holds."