Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D., F.A.C.P.

Medical Oncology/Hematology  Telephone: (215) 333-4900

 Facsimile: (215) 333-2023
Smylie Times Building - Suite #500-C
8001 Roosevelt Boulevard  rsklaroff@gmail.com
Philadelphia, PA 19152
December 11, 2018 [updated]

Michael B. Gebhardt, Esq.

Vice President and University Counsel at Temple University
300 Sullivan Hall
1330 W. Polett Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19122- 6086
(215) 204-6542 re: Marc Lamont Hill, Ph.D. [D.O.B. 12/17/1978]

Dear Mr. Gebhardt: {The first version was uploaded on the Internet @ https://tinyurl.com/y9fjh46l.}

This is a supplemental memo noting that the primary decision to be made at tomorrow’s Board meeting
is whether Temple’s reputation might be besmirched more were it to fire a professor who had exercised
his freedom-of-speech rights vs. to retain a racist, Jew-hating, anarchist who violates the TAUP contract
[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/magazine/marc-lamont-hill-is-your-friendly-neighborhood-
marxist.html] The key-issue is whether his repeated advocacy for violence poisons the institution.

During a speech to a Mosque [starting on minute 27, after he speaks Arabic], he interlaced an overtly
black-power theme with startling claims, such as the assertion that—after having attacked the history of
America for being cast in a positive light as “The Great Experiment” [starting at minute 33]—Obama was
the “front-man for an evil enterprise” [35:30] that must be changed to change its outcome for Blacks
[https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=marc+lamont+hill+is+a+muslim&view=detail&mid=0F1A0218
B2118DE2A6ED0F1A0218B2118DE2A6ED&FORM=VIRE]. During an interview last week with Touré
[starting @ 1:06:50], he advocated abolishing prisons & police [http://toure.com/?s=marc+lamont+hill]
as per his book “Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond”
[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/books/review/nobody-marc-lamont-hill.html].

While on CNN, he was bashed for saying a beheading by a Muslim in America is “not Islamic terrorism”
[http://barenakedislam.com/2014/09/30/marc-lamont-hill-gets-bashed-on-cnn-for-saying-a-beheading-
by-a-muslim-in-america-is-not-islamic-terrorism/] claiming, instead, it’s only a “mental health issue.” And
in this clip, from this past September, he says he wants to emulate a terrorist who had hijacked two
airplanes (Leila Khaled) on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist [@ the end
of this 2-minute rant]. (During the first part of this clip, he accuses Israel of poisoning "Palestinian"-Arab
water and perpetuates the myth of “hands up, don’t shoot”; this was widely circulated on social media
last week.) [https://twitter.com/LevineJonathan/status/1070785493246332933] He supports terrorism
[https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/KtbxLwgxDgKmkGqpQjRPghrJQZrbgKdFnV?projector=1&mes
sagePartId=0.1]: “Trump’s position on Israel/Palestine is repugnant. His call for Palestine to ‘reject hatred
and terrorism’ is offensive & counterproductive.” He is unabashedly peddling MORE than hate-speech.

Claiming Israel poisoned Palestinian Arab water is defamatory (slander & libel) and he is inflammatory
(true threat & fighting words) imminently inciting violence [https://www.americanthinker.com
/blog/2018/12/temple_u_hides_behind_constitution_to_defend_antisemitic_marc_lamont_hill.html].

1
Lynne Lechter emphasized Hill meets these criteria in our essay supra (which I’d “inspired”), also recalling:

• Israel has neither poisoned water nor wantonly killed civilians; Hamas/Hezbollah target civilians.

• Israel offered Palestinian Arabs a state five times and they have refused without counter-offering.

• Arafat started an Intifada and diverted money to private Paris Bank Accounts, instead of
accepting the country he was offered.

• English, Arabic and Hebrew are languages in Israel; Arabs, especially second wives, have
more rights in Israel than in any other Arab country.

• There are Arab members of the Knesset (Israeli Congress) that are allowed to address the
body in Arabic; no Arab country allows Jews or Christians to do likewise.

• There are 50 Muslim countries that could have absorbed the “refugees” which at most are
now 350K; some commit the most egregious of atrocities and the UN and world say nothing.
They are horrible to women and gays - Israel is not.

• Not only anti-Jewish, Hill’s comments are racist.

• You should be doing everything possible to penalize him and tell the world it is not
acceptable; there is no need for a study before acting expeditiously.

• Can you imagine the outcry if a white person had said the same about an African American?
A Christian against a Muslim?

• This kind of ugly/dangerous dialogue marginalized the Jews 70 years ago.

• Jews did more to help African Americans during the Civil Rights wars than did any other
group. And donated to African American schools and colleges. We don’t deserve this.

Hill’s 11/28/2018 speech triggered turmoil with local/national implications, for he violated the four
faculty-conduct criteria that supersede any claim of “academic-freedom” and satisfied the four legal
criteria that shed “speech-freedom” defense by showing moral turpitude when fomenting violence;
these are applicable regardless of whether an individual is tenured and regardless of the purported
credibility of the cause for which he/she is advocating. A “compromise” cannot be effectuated, for the
only method to protect defenseless students (of all ages) from his input is to ensure he has no classroom
contact (notwithstanding off-campus conduct); his reprehensible ideology is so thoroughly engrained—
particularly when videos are scrutinized—that the only reasonable remedy is to discharge him and then
to permit him to reapply after he has demonstrated a pattern of [1]—spreading accurate information,
[2]—showing restraint; [3]—viewing contrary postures without scorn; and [4]—providing an explicit
disclaimer which identifies him as speaking only for himself rather than for Temple. Hill is a Jew-hating
anarchist—a radical-racist rabble-rouser—who harbors values that neither reflect Temple’s reputation
nor the ethics of the local/regional/statewide/national community. After he has been promptly FIRED,
the Board should investigate how he was hired without a meaningful background-check, given tenure
and a salary, and let-loose without evidence that oversight of his activities was effectuated by his Dean.

2
It is vital to appreciate—and then to puncture—arguments favoring Hill, for they claim that everything is
subject to interpretation; whereas we provide data, they provide brush-offs…and deride our initiative.
There is precedent for precipitously firing a Business-Chair @ Temple, even if circumstances differ, and
“To forgive him is to empower his hate-filled rhetoric to spread in an age when antisemitism is on the rise
on college campuses and around the country” [https://www.jpost.com//Opinion/Marc-Lamont-Hill-
does-not-deserve-forgiveness-573823]. Also, to provide any type of cooling-off process would validate
his attack on fundamental American values while advocating violence to yield revolutionary change.

His protectors, as noted in the first e-mail, are populated by the “usual suspects” who emphasize politics
over facts [https://www.globalresearch.ca/jewish-voice-for-peace-targets-cnn-over-dr-marc-lamont-hill-
firing-for-having-defended-palestinian-rights/5662435], and they are amplified by Palestinian Arabs who,
as per today’s “blast” e-mail, fail to confront the violence-advocacy of what resembles a terrorist.

Marc Lamont Hill follows over half a century of Black activists punished for supporting
Palestinian rights

https://mondoweiss.net/2018/12/activists-punished-supporting-
palestinian/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=caa4ac1cf7-
RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-caa4ac1cf7-
398525761&mc_cid=caa4ac1cf7&mc_eid=c14448fe78

On Wednesday, November 28th, CNN commentator, Marc Lamont Hill, gave a speech at
the United Nations in which he reaffirmed his support for the boycott, divestment, and
sanctions against the state of Israel, and a one state solution that established a secular,
democratic state in Israel-Palestine. CNN fired Marc Lamont Hill within 24 hours of that
speech. Hill falls in a line of over 50 years of corporate media silencing Black people who
stood in solidarity with Palestine, such as Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, SNCC, and the
Movement for Black Lives.

‘Thank you, we are with you’: Palestinian activists stand in solidarity with Marc Lamont
Hill

https://mondoweiss.net/2018/12/palestinian-activists-
solidarity/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=caa4ac1cf7-
RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-caa4ac1cf7-
398525761&mc_cid=caa4ac1cf7&mc_eid=c14448fe78

Over the past week, activists in the West Bank have staged multiple protests in support
of Dr. Marc Lamont Hill after he was fired from CNN for a speech he gave at the United
Nations in which he criticized the Israeli occupation and the abuse of Palestinian rights.
Mondoweiss spoke to Munther Amira, Coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination
Committee, about his support for Dr. Hill and why he believes it is important for
Palestinians to stand in solidarity with the activist.

3
Explaining why many “fact-check” sites are problematic [and, specifically, why I stopped receiving input
from Quora] is this clearly-slanted portrayal of the “forces for good” that are being dissed without proof;
know that accusations of the existence of an “Israel Lobby” arises from Jew-haters … and are defamatory:

High-level operatives of the Israel lobby are behind calls to fire Marc Lamont Hill from
Temple University {Text has been edited/annotated for grammar and lucency.}

https://medium.com/dialogue-and-discourse/high-level-operatives-of-the-israel-lobby-
are-behind-calls-to-fire-marc-lamont-hill-from-temple-da92a0545691

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*uO1fzbfnBn9_H_I9OVHpgw.jpeg
Marc Lamont Hill at his new café and bookstore Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee &
Books in Philadelphia. Photo: Jehron Muhammad

It is now widely acknowledged on social media that The Israel lobby that represents
extreme political Zionism in the United States is seeking to make an example of Marc
Lamont Hill in order to avoid having to discuss the important issues he brought up in
his speech. You can watch Professor Hill’s pro-Palestine speech here. {Both of these links
to excerpts therefrom do not provide context and, thus, were selected for the viewer.}

Ali Abunimah points out [Electronic Intifada]: “The accusations against Marc Lamont Hill
are outright lies promoted by high-level operatives [example Adam Milstein, Co-founder,
Adam & Gila Milstein Foundation | Israeli-American Advocate & Philanthropist] of the
Israel lobby in their latest effort to silence and punish anyone who dares speak out in
support of Palestinian equality and freedom from Israel’s brutal regime of occupation,
settler-colonialism and apartheid.”

Critics of Hill have claimed that he implicitly called for the destruction of Israel as a state.
Though Hill did not make that claim, the alarm raised by these critics is ironic given that
Israel is currently — and has been for decades — seeking to ethnically cleanse the historic
land of Palestine of all of its indigenous inhabitants.

4
In an exposé titled The Political Lynching of Marc Lamont Hill: What You’re Not Being Told,
Whitney Webb, a staff writer for MintPress News, details some of the actors involved and
shows how they are connected to the Israel lobby.

Webb begins by naming Leonard Barrack, a politically influential

Philadelphia lawyer, Temple trustee and major donor to the university,
who, it turns out has connections to the Israel lobby, specifically to the
Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Barrack was joined in his pressure on Temple University to punish

Professor Marc Lamont Hill for his speech by another Temple University
alumnus with connections to the Israel lobby: the President of the Zionist
Organization of America (ZOA), Morton Klein, who called Professor Hill a
“Bigot Jew-hater.”

Whitney Webb goes on to explain that: “Like Barrack, Klein has

considerable political pull in this situation, not because of his ties to
Temple University necessarily, but because of his ties to the Trump
administration and Trump’s largest political donor, Sheldon Adelson [who
funds the organization Klein leads, the Zionist Organization of American
(ZOA), which targets conservatives in the U.S.]”

Webb cites more organizations implicated in the above through their

tweets and other activities. These are:

1. American Jewish Committee (AJC), which targets liberals in the U.S.,

through its spokesperson Avi Mayer.
2. UN Watch, a wholly owned subsidiary of AJC.
3. The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), an umbrella group for over
100 smaller organizations in the U.S. which has boasted on its web page
(“Our founding roots”) that it had funneled weapons to Zionist terror
groups like Irgun during the Palestinian Nakba. It is now engaged in
promoting anti-BDS action on U.S. college campuses, demonstrating that
the Jewish-State Nakba in historic Palestine is ongoing.

In a comment on my answer on Quora, Tom Hammer, M.Ed. from Temple University

(1972), adds another actor to the above:

I just finished reading an opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer

attacking Hill by Adam Levick, a senior researcher at CAMERA, which is a
noted pro-Israeli group that aggressively attempts to pressure US media
to write pro-Israeli pieces or attempts to get retractions. They also tried
to infiltrate Wikipedia and place one of their members there as an
administrator without disclosing the [that] he was a member of their
group. The disputed account was banned for life, I believe. Committee for
Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America — Wikipedia

5
 There is no doubt that the campaign against Hill used prominent figures and organiza-
tions in the Israel lobby, many of whom hold extremist positions and are openly racist.

For further information on the power of the Israel lobby, watch the final episode of Al
Jazeera’s documentary film on the subject and read “It’s Killing the Student Movement”:
Canary Mission’s Blacklist of Pro-Palestine Activists Is Taking a Toll.

Increasingly, however, I am glad to report, the excesses of the Israel lobby are catching
up with it and many in academia are no longer cowed into silence.

Temple University’s faculty has rallied to Professor Hill’s defense and issued a statement,
not only defending his right to express his views on Palestine, but also castigating the
action of Patrick O’Connor, chair of Temple University’s board of trustees, who is so
clearly under the sway of the Israel lobby:

We respect O’Connor’s right to express his own views on the Israeli

occupation. But if anyone is guilty of violating Temple’s clause on
academic freedom, it is O’Connor. His comments were not restrained, he
did not show respect for Hill’s opinions, and he flagrantly misrepresented
his views as those of everyone at Temple. Most egregiously, O’Connor
undermined academic freedom by implying that firing Hill was desirable
and/or in process. Academic freedom is a bedrock principle of academia.
O’Connor has betrayed that principle and we have no confidence in his
leadership of the board.
___________________
Note: The above content was first published (5 Dec 2018) as my answer on Quora to the
question “Who is behind the call to fire Professor Marc Lamont Hill from his teaching
position at Temple University?”

Rima Najjar is a former professor (now retired) at Al-Quds University, Palestine

OPINION: Faculty who have privately threatened to resign over this issue would be bluffing, probably;
indeed, were such an offer to be tendered, they would be cleansing the entity of people who sympathize
with a Jew-hating, profoundly-prejudiced, terrorist-praising source of demonstrably FALSE information.

If any fact/argument has been omitted from these two communications, it has not been by design;
we are not engaging in hyperbolic emotionalism when we emphasize the profound stakes in this fight.

We have no problem with his exercise of speech/academic-freedom when spewing his version of the
facts in the Middle East, for these can be debated—just as he did with Bill O’Reilly on FNC—but we do
have a major problem with his making the campus unsafe for pro-Israelis [including Jews] to avoid
feeling threatened by thoughts he conveys and actions he would advise listeners consider emulating.

Whether or not litigation against his continued presence on the Temple campus as a professor should
be pursued is also a criterion that should be weighed by the Trustees if they are to ensure they provide
a safe-space for all students noting the Jew-hatred that has emerged regularly on college campuses.

These views are my own, but know that they are shared by those who are alarmed by Hill’s activities.