A United Airlines pilot has been removed from service, with pay, after a screenshot of him allegedly calling the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel a “resistance by a brave people” surfaced on social media this week.
On Monday, the nonprofit StopAntisemitism posted a screenshot of an Oct. 7 Facebook post reportedly penned Ibrahim R Mossallam on X, formerly Twitter. In the post, Mossallam appeared to share his thoughts on the then burgeoning conflict.
“This is a resistance by a brave people who have endured decades of occupation, oppression, humiliation, apartheid, and straight up murder. This was not an unprovoked attack, but a response to this past years attacks by the Zionist regime,” Mossallam allegedly said in the post.
He also allegedly urged others to “work on expanding your media literacy” and appeared to write, “media here in America is heavily politicized and skewed to show a non-occupying narrative of Palestine.”
StopAntisemitism’s X post sharing the screenshot was viewed more than 2 million times.
“This is abhorernt @united – how can Jewish passengers feel safe with this man flying their plane?” the account asked in its post.
Social media users were quick to call on United Airlines to take action against the pilot.
“@United please ensure that your Jewish passengers are safe with this pilot” one user wrote.
Another questioned the safety of all passengers.
“Not only Jewish passengers, ALL passengers will feel unsafe travelling with him at 30,000 feet,” one wrote.
On Tuesday, the airline confirmed to multiple media outlets that Mossallam had been “removed from service, with pay” while it investigates the incident.
The Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people and saw over 200 be taken hostage. In the time since the initial attack, a barrage of Israeli air strikes and a ground campaign into Gaza has left what the Hamas-run Health Ministry says is more than 11,000 Palestinians dead.