Shortly after Hamas slaughtered Israeli civilians, including children, and took hostages an Air Canada pilot appeared in uniform, draped in a Palestinian flag and called for the destruction of Israel. That didn’t go over well with the airline.
United Airlines has a pilot, highlighted by Stop Antisemitism, who seems to cheer on the Hamas death cult as well, posting a steady barrage of messages to Facebook. My takeaways from his page, he seems to suggest:
- no civilians were killed on October 7
- it was actually the Israeli military that killed civilians on October 7
- Hamas’s atrocities of October 7 represented “resistance by brave people”
- Jews control America
To be clear, he isn’t just expressing concerns, for instance, with the Netanyahu government. He actually appears to be pro-Hamas. And he seems to argue that hostage-taking and killing of children is justified. I don’t know what’s in his heart. People say crazy things on social media. But, wow, for an airline pilot to take a position that seems pro-terrorism is just striking.
Ibrahim R Mossallam is a United Airlines pilot who stated on an October 7th Facebook post the massacre in Israel that left 1400 people dead, women raped, and babies burned alive was "resistance by brave people".
This is abhorernt @united – how can Jewish passengers feel safe… pic.twitter.com/lD76WcvwqZ
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 20, 2023
I generally think it’s fine for people to express abhorrent opinions. The government certainly shouldn’t stop this, which is why it was important that the ACLU stood up for the right of Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois (National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977)).
Here’s where I want you to check my opinion. I would not feel comfortable as a passenger on a plane piloted by someone who is pro-terrorist. I don’t even feel comfortable on the ground in the flight path of such a person. Am I wrong?
@Helldoge asked “Since when is it wrong to be critical of Apartheid?”
Never! Except, before you start throwing around such big and important words, it helps to check the definition of the work “apartheid”. FYI, there’s no apartheid in Israel. Feel free to check, both the dictionary and the reports from Israel.
A lot of the “Israel can do no wrong in the name of security” crowd would be throwing a conniption if Trump and their favorite xenophobia-supporters would be subject to “cancel culture” with their jobs and otherwise for publicly espousing lawful, yet politically-disliked speech/expression when they are “off the clock” and away from the work site. And how about pulling away work from all those characters who are fans of violence against unarmed “brown” and “black” people whom they see as the “other” while blaming “the other” for “getting what they deserve”?
Free speech is so misunderstood: it means the govt can suppress speech. It doesn’t mean there aren’t non-govt consequences to free speech nor does it stop a private business, e.g. United f ru I’m taking action. Get this crazy out of the cockpit!
@GUtlessWonder – Hamas is a terrorist organization who just committed horrific atrocities in any context. You want to support that shit, I suggest you start posting under your real name so we can inform your clients. FAFO. Same with anyone else. However, you wish to criticize Israel for real errors, or support Palestine in general, feel free, I may disagree, but that’s well within bounds. What the pilot posted was way beyond that. If Americans Knew is considered antisemitic even by Jewish Voice for Peace, about as big a critic of Israel in the Jewish community as you’re likely to find.
I marvel at the number of people who don’t understand the purpose of 1A.
I’m not at all surprised at those who don’t know enough of the history of the Holy Land to have a well-reasoned opinion on the Palestinian-Hamas-Israel conflict. Much emotion, little reason underlies a number of comments, but that’s nothing new.
Gary, thanks for the article that got the discussion going. I learn something from the responses and often something about my fellow travelers (no punt intended)
C_Morgan,
You keep imagining what you think I want, but it just speaks to the hollowness of your ability to make a strong point on a logical, consistent basis free of hypocrisy,
Unlike that Netanyahu clown who repeatedly asked Qatar to fund the brutal criminal organization that is Hamas, I’ve always been against Netanyahu’s destructive ways and Hamas.
I set myself up long ago as economically independent, and so I am not going to be silenced by any of your kind of threats or baseless insults. I give thanks for being well protected from your kind of nonsense and threats.
@GUWONDER
and here you go again being your old nazi self
now we passed the 10000 terrorists dead, like I warned you
when we said “never again” we mean never again, even if it means many MANY dead on the other side, it is irrelevant
hopefully you can join your hero martyrs soon
You truly have to be 50 ways from stupid to do this.
It’s clear as glass in the employee handbook that employees are not to do or say anything that will cast the company in a negative light.
He is welcome to say anything he wants, but as soon as he does it linking UA, he’s done.
Doug is like his former neo-Nazi-supporting Putin buddy who claimed that his attacking Ukraine in 2022 is about de-Nazifying Ukraine. So it’s no surprise to me that doug imagines opponents of anti-semitism to be Nazis even as nothing could be further from the truth. Keep imagining the dream, doug, but your dream won’t make your defamatory claim to be true. The closest thing to a Nazi in this situation are the “pro-Israel” right wingers who are advancing an Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign sort of reminiscent of the Janjaweed’s actions in Darfur and the rest of Sudan.
Damn autocorrect. My correct comment below
Free speech is so misunderstood: it means the govt canNOT suppress speech. It doesn’t mean there aren’t non-govt consequences to free speech nor does it stop a private business, e.g. United from taking action. Get this crazy out of the cockpit!
As to the other comments on the war in Gaza, aren’t they better discussed elsewhere? Isn’t this a blog for United customers about United?
You know this is somewhat I really don’t understand. 11 years ago I was studying to become a pilot and hopefully one day to join the majors one day. The FAA stopped me from flying because about 33 years ago I was admitted to get help from a rehab for having depression. From there on I was completely healed then found God 5 years later and got married. 21 years later I went to flight school to learn to be one a pilot. Several months later after making about 17 hrs of flight, the FAA grounded me all because of my past. I gave them proof that I was healed and I was a total different person from that time and they gave me the runaround until I just finally threw my hands in the air and I just quit all together. Those aholes(FAA) meanwhile giving pilot’s licenses to people exceedly far worse than I and now you get these pilots who glorify terrorism and crashing planes and killing people without getting full information about them just like that one pilot who killed over 150 people on that Germanwings flight are totally pathetic. Don’t be surprised that there are way more of those pilots around like the one from United. The FAA don’t really care about people. They only care about getting a dollar than caring for people’s lives and safety. Once that pilot gets reinstated to fly again, be aware cos you don’t know what he’s capable of. Thanks alot, FAA.