Yesterday, CNN fired Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, a popular anti-racism activist figure and Temple university professor, over a United Nations speech in which he advocated for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.

On Wednesday, Dr. Hill was invited to speak at the Special Meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Hill spoke about the similarities between the Black american struggle against racism in the U.S. and the Palestinian movement against Zionist colonization in Israel. He advocated for a political solidarity between both struggles, and reiterated the multitude of violence the Palestinians face under occupation.

Throughout his speech, Hill outlined how the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights has been violated by Israel for their military occupation of Palestinians and the consistent failure to hold the apartheid regime accountable by the world’s nations.

Hill’s remarks were met with fierce criticism from many Zionist figures in the U.S, some arguing that Hill’s remarks about a “free Palestine from the river to the sea” calls for the end of Israel.

A CNN spokesperson said, “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN.”

Hill took to Twitter to defend and clarify his remarks.

While Hill was met with fierce attacks, many are also voicing their support by sharing the hashtag #IStandWithMLH, and have started a petition demanding CNN to rehire the professor.

Renowned Palestinian activist and professor Noura Erakat wrote, “Viscous attack of fits in violent legacy of attacking leading black internationalists,Malcolm X, Paul Robeson,Muhammad Ali, Kwame Ture,George Jackson, Huey P. Newton Assata Shakur,Angela Davis-this is the disciplining of black radicalism & it will continue to fail.”