Right-wing commentators have a theory about plane safety concerns — and they say diversity is to blame

Alia Shoaib
Updated Sun, January 28, 2024 

A recent string of plane safety incidents has made many more concerned about flying.


Right-wing commentators including Elon Musk have baselessly decided that DEI initiatives are to blame.


One expert said the attacks on DEI seem like a "last-ditch effort to preserve a more white-centered United States culture."

Right-wing commentators have a new theory to explain the recent series of high-profile plane-safety incidents — and they are claiming that diversity initiatives are to blame.

Recent incidents, including a runway collision in Japan, a giant blowout in the side of a plane, the discovery of loose bolts in several planes, and a fallen nose wheel have led to increased scrutiny on the aviation industry and fears about plane safety.

Conservative commentators have converged around the idea that diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives are jeopardizing plane safety, baselessly claiming that underqualified employees belonging to minority groups have been promoted in the industry.

Elon Musk reshared a post about Boeing diversity policies on X, adding: "Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening."

Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator, took to X to make the unsubstantiated claim: "DEI is destroying the airline industry and lots of people will die because of it."

Others have been more literal in their scapegoating: The right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong claimed that the Boeing plane that lost part of its fuselage mid-flight was made by a team of "diverse" engineers, and the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk said that if he saw a Black pilot he would question their qualifications.

Candance Owens said she would be "terrified" if she was on a plane with a female pilot.

The anti-LGBTQ+ account Libs of TikTok also complained that Alaska Airlines has been focusing on "making their planes gay" rather than ensuring customer safety.

The actor and comedian Rob Schneider went as far as to say he will boycott United Airlines over their diversity practices — echoing other conservative boycotts of companies perceived to be "woke," such as Bud Light, which came under conservative fire last year when it partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer.

Aviation experts have never cited DEI initiatives as a cause or contributor to air-safety problems.

In particular, Boeing's planes — specifically the 737 Max line — have come under scrutiny, and experts have been pointing to quality-control issues, workforce shortages, and cost-cutting measures that might have come at the expense of safety.

Boeing did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
'DEI is widespread. It's an easier, closer target'

Conservatives have long taken issue with DEI initiatives, which aim to increase representation among underrepresented groups in workplaces, and it has largely become a catch-all bogeyman to blame for various problems.

It is true that airlines and plane manufacturers have made attempts to increase diversity in recent years because white men have historically dominated the aviation industry.

Companies such as Delta Air Lines and United didn't hire their first Black pilots until after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

But these initiatives have not dramatically changed the workforce demographics, and there is no evidence to suggest that people getting promotions lack the proper qualifications and credentials.

Experts say that it is not just misguided to blame DEI initiatives for a reduction in the quality of workers but that it is also less entrenched than its critics imagine.

"The newer attacks on DEI seem, to me, to be more in line with attacks on diversity in general, from the attacks on diversity in college admissions to the attacks on university presidents to the general whining about white men, in particular, not being hired, to the attacks around immigration," Matthew Florence, a DEI consultant, told Rolling Stone.

"It feels like an overall last-ditch effort to preserve a more white-centered United States culture."

The attacks on diversity are ramping up ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with conservative media outlets pointing to the likely GOP candidate Donald Trump's pledges to eradicate federal DEI programs.

Rachel Décoste, a social-policy expert from Canada, told Rolling Stone that DEI is a more effective bogeyman than critical race theory, which has been a focus of conservatives in recent years.

"They were losing a lot of people with CRT. If you ask Joe Blow on the street, 'What does it mean?' — they usually weren't able to define it. DEI is widespread, it's the subtitle of somebody at your workplace, and it's an easier, closer target," she sai


How right-wing influencers turned airplanes and airports into culture war battlegrounds

David Ingram

Sun, January 28, 2024 


The conservative media ecosystem is piggybacking on Americans’ fascination with air travel to stir up opposition to corporate diversity programs, an effort that may raise the salience of culture war issues at the start of the 2024 election year even as their claims are largely based on false or misleading information.

In recent weeks, right-wing influencers, politicians and media outlets have repeatedly attacked efforts by airlines to find more job applicants who are women or nonwhite, programs that are known within big corporations as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Some of their attacks are getting millions of views on social media and being picked up by Republican politicians.

But the outsized criticism of the programs in the airline industry and the speculation about their effects doesn’t reflect reality, according to airline employees who spoke to NBC News

On Fox Business, a former Federal Aviation Administration employee claimed without citing specific incidents that diversity commitments from airlines could lead to safety issues, even though airlines say they haven’t changed their standards and that DEI efforts are about finding qualified-but-overlooked job candidates.

When a wheel fell off a jet on an Atlanta runway last weekend, Donald Trump Jr. suggested without evidence that diversity efforts were to blame.

And podcaster Charlie Kirk said this week that he had no choice but to be prejudiced against Black pilots because some of them have benefited from a DEI program.

“I’m sorry, if I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified,’” Kirk said.

Despite the focus on certain statements from airlines about diversity, DEI programs have not led to drastic changes in airline employee diversity: About 92% of pilots and flight engineers are white and 92% are men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The proportion of pilots and flight engineers who are Black grew from 2.7% in 2018 to 3.6% in 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Asian representation fell from 4.2% to 2.7%, and Latinos rose from 6.8% to 10.7%. The share of pilots and flight engineers who are women fell from 9% to 8.3% from 2018 to 2023, according to the bureau.

But the topic may be tantalizing for Republicans as they attempt to fire up their voter base ahead of the 2024 presidential election: They can capitalize on widespread interest in news about air travel while also appealing to conservatives’ long-standing criticism of affirmative action and other diversity programs.

Heather Poole, a flight attendant and author, said in an email, “I believe airlines are being politicized because travel is something everyone can connect to, regardless of race, gender, economic status, etc.”

Fox, the Trump Organization and Turning Point USA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Many of the criticisms are based on misunderstandings or false narratives about DEI programs.

“We are talking more about fishing for talent in new ponds,” Jessica Muench, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at United, told Crain’s last year. United’s Aviate initiative pours money into new training academies for pilots and mechanics who otherwise might not be able to afford traditional schools.

One statement in particular from United CEO Scott Kirby is being misquoted on social media. Kirby told Axios in a 2021 interview that the company wants 50% of its flight academy “classes” to be women or people of color. Flight academy students are at the start of their careers, years away from being hired as pilots for any major airline, but some critics of diversity are saying incorrectly that Kirby made a pledge about 50% of “hires.”

United said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday that its flight training standards are rigorous and have not been lowered.

“United is proud to maintain the highest standards in our pilot hiring, training, and safety practices. Every aviator who joins our ranks must meet them. No exceptions,” the company said.

The FAA raised the standards in 2013 after a fatal crash near Buffalo, requiring co-pilots to get the same 1,500 hours of flight time as captains. Last year, the FAA rejected a request to reduce the hours requirement.

The claims connecting DEI initiatives to safety issues have bordered on the absurd, blaming diversity in hiring for anything and everything that goes wrong near an airplane. In one post on X that got 1.6 million views, podcast host Joey Mannarino claimed that “the diversity hire brigade” was to blame for tarmac delays at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Mannarino stood by his concern in a direct message to NBC News, saying he believes that spending money on diversity initiatives detracts from other considerations and improvements. “Imagine all the free Wi-Fi for all customers that could be given if they weren’t busy funding stuff like this,” he said.

To some industry veterans, the criticism of airline DEI programs is ridiculous and insulting — not least because there hasn’t been a fatal U.S. airline crash since 2009.

The Air Line Pilots Association, the union for more than 77,000 pilots at U.S. and Canadian airlines, said in a statement to NBC News that the critics are wrong.

“Flying is the safest mode of transportation in the world thanks in large part to airline pilots, professionals that are all held to the highest training and qualification standards,” the association said.

“There are real threats to aviation safety like efforts to replace pilots with automation or lower training and experience standards, but opening the doors of opportunity to ensure we have a robust supply of qualified aviators isn’t one of them,” they said.

For decades, airlines refused to hire qualified nonwhite pilots, snubbing even those with military experience. The Supreme Court forced Continental Air Lines to hire a Black pilot in a 1963 ruling.

And for decades since, change has been slow. Ann Hood, a former flight attendant who wrote a memoir, “Fly Girl,” about her experiences in the 1970s and 1980s, said that she saw one female pilot and zero pilots of color when she was working.

“It was all white guys in the cockpit,” she said in a phone interview. “I don’t think it is that long ago, especially when you think that aviation history is pretty short.”

Brett Snyder, who has been writing about the airline business since 2006 and who runs the website Cranky Flier, said that he’s seen no connection between diversity efforts and safety.

“Even someone with basic knowledge of airline operations and safety would know that there’s no data to support this,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s an affront to the people who are being brought into this industry and making them feel like they don’t belong.”

Snyder said the industry is used to being under a harsh media spotlight, which creates an opportunity for anyone who’s pushing an agenda.

“Airlines are always in the news, and people love talking about airlines,” he said. “Anyone who is trying to seize on an anti-diversity message would probably do the same thing as anyone else and say, ‘Where are the eyeballs?’”

Airline incidents frequently go viral on social media, from the 2017 episode when a passenger was forcibly dragged off an oversold United plane to videos about face masks from early in the coronavirus pandemic.

There was even a media flare-up about airline diversity efforts in 2021, when then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson and others said that airline executives would get people killed if they continued DEI programs.

“They’re suffering from an incurable brain disease called wokeness,” Carlson said at the time.

But the cascade of criticism is on a different level now. Tech billionaire Elon Musk attacked DEI efforts in two posts on X this month, prompting two civil rights organizations to denounce his statements. Musk responded by calling the organizations “openly racist.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tweeted this month that “DEI is destroying our major airlines!” He also recorded a podcast on the subject in November. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Libs of TikTok, an X account with 2.8 million followers, has hammered airlines for their DEI programs in more than a dozen posts this month. In a post Tuesday that got 2.1 million views, the account alleged a connection between drag queen flight attendants and the cancellation of a flight last week because bolts were missing from a wing.




Asked for further comment, Libs of TikTok, which is run by conservative influencer Chaya Raichik, told NBC News in an email Thursday: “I strongly believe in the opportunities that DEI offers to other communities. Therefore, I only respond to reporters who identify as black, trans, nonbinary, or Latinx. Unfortunately it appears you don’t make the cut.”

Some of the conservative attacks on air travel have looped in other hot-button political subjects such as immigration.

Libs of TikTok has posted at least three videos this month of people said to be migrants, including toddlers, sleeping in airports, and the account expressed outrage at their presence.

“Which airport or school will be next?” one post said. “This destruction of America is intentional, and it’s treasonous.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., alleged at a congressional hearing this month that migrants were swarming airports.

“I just traveled in airports across the country just the past few days. You know what I saw in our airports? Migrants, illegal aliens, all over in the airports,” she said, leaving social media users perplexed about how she concluded that the passengers were migrants.

Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.





Right-wing influencers and even a Boston TV station have gone into airports to shoot video of people they believe to be migrants. Ashley St. Clair helped to kick off the phenomenon in December with a video of people boarding a flight from Phoenix to New York. She said many of them carried bags provided by immigration processing centers, and her post has gotten 27.3 million views, according to X.

St. Clair did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The focus on airline DEI initiatives appeared to pick up after the Jan. 5 incident on an Alaska Airlines flight where a panel blew off the Boeing-made fuselage. There is no known connection between the blowout and diversity efforts — in fact, the pilots have received praise for their calm handling of the situation, and at least one of them was a woman — but the incident drew intense attention to airline safety.

Comedian Rob Schneider is among those who have fanned the flames of DEI criticism. He told jokes about nonwhite pilots in a comedy special last year, and this week, one of his posts on X where he said he was boycotting United Airlines and calling for the firing of Kirby, the United CEO and a supporter of diversity efforts, was viewed more than 4 million times.

Schneider and Libs of TikTok both criticized Kirby for appearing in drag at least once in the past — a costume that Kirby wore for a Halloween party at US Airways in 2011 as part of a company tradition, according to the industry blog View from the Wing.

Without evidence, Schneider also tied diversity to a near-crash in 2022.

“Your diverse but incompetent flight crew didn’t know which flaps were causing its near disastrous [descent],” he alleged.

Federal regulators have said that pilot miscommunication was to blame for that jet losing altitude after departure and descending to within 748 feet of the ocean. Both pilots had well over the minimum number of 1,500 flight hours to be certified.

Representatives for Schneider did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

POSTMODERN IMPERIALI$M

How China's 'stadium diplomacy' is looking to make its mark at the Africa Cup of Nations

South China Morning Post
Sun, January 28, 2024 

China may have left the Asian Cup early after its men's football team was eliminated in the first round, but is making its presence felt on another continent - at the 34th Africa Cup of Nations.

The recent visit to Ivory Coast by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi coincided with the early stages of the football tournament also known as Afcon, being held in the West African country with three Chinese-built stadiums among the six venues.

These include the 60,000-seat Alassane Ouattara Stadium north of Abidjan, also known as the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe.

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It is Ivory Coast's largest stadium and was financed by US$40.6 million from the China International Development Cooperation Agency or China Aid - Beijing's official foreign aid and global development agency.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan earlier this month. Photo: Reuters 

There is also the US$107.5 million Laurent Pokou Stadium in San Pedro, funded by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Building stadiums is part of a wider long-term plan by China to boost ties with African countries by funding large-scale infrastructure projects such as diplomatic and military education facilities, presidential palaces, parliament buildings, hospitals and foreign ministry headquarters.

According to China's nationalist tabloid Global Times, the country has built more than 100 stadiums across Africa.

"All of this is part of a long-term policy of 'stadium diplomacy' which China has been deploying across the continent," Simon Chadwick, a professor of sport and geopolitical economy at SKEMA Business School in France, and Chris Toronyi, a PhD candidate and lecturer at Loughborough University in Britain, wrote in news and commentary site The Conversation.

"Linked to the Belt and Road Initiative, which is intended to promote trade and foster interdependence between China and other nations, stadiums have frequently been gifted to African nations [or else paid for using relatively cheap loans]," they wrote in the January 2 article.

Paul Nantulya, a China specialist at the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies in Washington, said this was a useful way to build influence.

"It is a cost-effective way of generating political influence with different elites," Nantulya said.

However, he noted that most of the buildings, including diplomatic and military facilities, were "always included" as a "by-product" of larger construction and energy projects negotiated between Chinese entities and African governments.

"China is essentially benefiting from those economies of scale," Nantulya said.

Meeting President Alassane Ouattara in the economic capital Abidjan on January 17, Wang said the hosting of Afcon was "not only a grand event for the African people, but also the pride of Ivory Coast".

"The main stadium built with China's assistance for Ivory Coast was delivered on time and with high quality ... and has become a symbol of mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Ivory Coast and a symbol of China-Africa friendship," Wang said.

The Alassane Ouattara Stadium hosted Ivory Coast's three group matches, which included a win and two losses.

Meanwhile, Beijing is also trying to expand its soft influence beyond steel and concrete.

In Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, Chinese instructors not only regularly teach at military colleges Beijing has bankrolled and built, but also play a role in developing the curriculum.

In Tunisia, where Beijing has financed and built the Tunis International Diplomatic Academy, Chinese instructors are expected to work with local officials on diplomatic engagements and policy.

"It also comes with training, which I call the software aspect of it and that's where really the influence comes in," Nantulya said.

Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

RAPACIOUS CAPITALI$M

Big Tech firms such as Tencent and Alibaba snap up land on the mainland amid slumping real estate sector

South China Morning Post
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Chinese Big Tech firms, including Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding, have become major buyers of land on the mainland at a time when both the technology and real estate sectors are battling economic and policy headwinds.

Social media and video gaming giant Tencent has shelled out 6.42 billion yuan (US$905 million) to acquire land spanning over 70,601 square metres in the Haidian district of Beijing, according to a notice published this week by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources.

The acquired land is intended to "meet the company's demand for office space that can provide a stable and centralised working space," a company representative told the Post last week.

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The Shenzhen-based technology behemoth employed more than 12,000 employees in Beijing as of the end of 2023.

Tencent's land grab comes as the domestic technology sector continues to recover from several years of regulatory upheaval, which has seen many firms scale back their operations and shed jobs. Although a stock rout has wiped billions of dollars in market value from the country's leading tech firms, authorities see the sector playing a key role in the future digital growth of China's economy.

Earlier this month, Alibaba completed the construction of its new Beijing campus, covering a floor area of 470,000 square metres and situated in the business-oriented Chaoyang District, according to a report by Beijing Daily. Alibaba owns the Post.

Last October, video gaming powerhouse miHoYo, and Alibaba's fintech arm Ant Group, both splurged on land plots in Shanghai and Hangzhou respectively, where they are headquartered.

miHoYo, the developer behind global hit Genshin Impact, bought a land plot for over 1 billion yuan through a subsidiary in the Caohejing district in Shanghai, where a raft of Shanghai-based video gaming firms are congregated.

Ant Group in the same month spent 1.5 billion yuan for a plot in the Xixigu fintech cluster situated in the Xihu district of Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province.

Separately, JD.com last year spent over 3 billion yuan to acquire land in Beijing's Yizhuang area, where the e-commerce giant is located.

Office vacancy rates are on the rise in China's first-tier cities - Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - according to property consultancy CBRE, meaning cheaper rental prices.

The consultancy expects the vacancy rate of grade-A office space to have grown by up to 21 per cent by the end of 2023, compared with 18.7 per cent in June 2023.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Our Conventional Wisdom About the Origins of American Jewish Defense of Palestinian Rights Misses a Lot

Geoffrey Levin
Sun, January 28, 2024

On a cold and rainy November day, a 65-year-old American rabbi trudged down the muddy roads of a Palestinian refugee camp. When the rabbi and his colleagues stopped, refugees gathered around them in a scene of “disappointment, frustration, [and] despair.” Gaunt men and “children, big-eyed and thin,” walked up and clutched the rabbi’s raincoat. Several began chanting, in Arabic, “We want to go home!” Weary, broken women watched silently from their tents as rain and wind chilled their bare feet. Guilt overcame the rabbi. “In my deepest heart, I said the prayer of confession,” the rabbi wrote, referring to a prayer recited on Yom Kippur, the fast of atonement. “Anachnu Chatanu.” We have sinned.

One could imagine this scene taking place recently. Yet it was 1953 when Rabbi Morris Lazaron walked through the refugee camp—Shatila, located in Lebanon—where he witnessed firsthand the suffering of Palestinian families who had lost their homes during the war that accompanied Israel’s creation in 1948. The “illimitable misery” of the refugees, to use Lazaron’s words, had a decisive impact on the former head rabbi of the prestigious Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. After his trip, Rabbi Lazaron began calling on the Israeli government to recognize the right of Palestine’s Arab refugees to return to their prewar homes and urged the Jewish state to admit 100,000 of them into the country immediately.

Lazaron felt that the Jewish historical experience should compel all Jews to support the Palestinian refugees. As members of what he called “the tribe of the wandering feet,” Lazaron pressed fellow American Jews to remember that they, too, were once “strangers in the land of Egypt.” Jewish identity weighed heavily on the rabbi’s mind as he considered how to respond to Palestinian suffering. Yet the hidden context of the rabbi’s trip reveals that the stakes of his response extended far beyond the realm of Jewish ethics. Lazaron’s visit to Lebanon had been organized and financed by a secretly CIA-funded advocacy organization called American Friends of the Middle East, a group created to give Americans a more sympathetic picture of the Arab side of the Israeli-Arab conflict. AFME published Lazaron’s book about the trip in 1955, apparently as part of a broader public relations effort that aimed to make it easier for United States officials to pressure Israel to accept the return of 75,000 Palestinian refugees.

The CIA was far from the only government body interested in American Jewish responses to the Palestinian refugee crisis. Lazaron articulated his lament on a playing field where various governmental actors—Israeli, American, and Arab—all jockeyed to shape U.S. public opinion surrounding the Palestinian refugee question. Just as AFME was organizing Lazaron’s trip, Israeli diplomats were quietly working to undermine both the Jewish newspaper that Lazaron wrote for and the anti-Zionist Jewish group he represented, the American Council for Judaism, which in turn had begun fostering warm ties with Arab officials. The American Jewish debate over Palestinian rights involved a struggle over Jewish identity, as Lazaron’s words reflect. But as his broader story shows, the debate also is, and always has been, part of a high-stakes political struggle between government officials and others over the future of Israel, the fate of the Palestinians, and the orientation of American foreign policy toward the Middle East.

There is a narrative about the trajectory of the American Jewish relationship with Israel that pervades all corners of the organized Jewish community today. “For millions of secular-minded American Jews, Israel was the glue. Israel was the cause,” declared conservative commentator Bret Stephens at the American Jewish Committee’s 2022 Global Forum. “Zionism was an effective and powerful and emotionally satisfying substitute for religious observance,” he continued, bemoaning that in contrast, “at the height of last year’s war [the 2021 Gaza crisis], so many young American Jews were eagerly signing letters denouncing Israeli behavior.”

While young American Jewish letter-signers may not appreciate Stephens’ tone, they probably would not dispute the gist of his historical observation, which is considered common knowledge both in Jewish political commentary and in scholarly works. For decades, American Jews had rallied around the Jewish state, with Israel uniting American Jewry in a way that nothing else could, including religion. But then at some point, according to this telling, young left-wing Jews began criticizing Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians, breaking with past generations to shatter this once-sacred consensus and imperil any semblance of Jewish unity.

Despite its ubiquity, this narrative is flawed in its basic assumptions. Ever since an estimated 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes amidst Israel’s birth in 1948, there have been American Jews deeply unsettled by Israeli policies toward both the Palestinian refugees and Arabs living under Israeli rule. These critics of old consisted not only of a few stray rabbis like Morris Lazaron, but in fact extended well into the American Jewish establishment—including leaders and staff members of the AJC. The collective amnesia with regard to this history has been complete: None of the over 1,000 AJC members in Stephens’ audience likely had any idea that in 1957 their organization’s president confronted Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, urging him to liberalize Israel’s policies toward its Arab citizens. The audience would not have known that at an AJC gala 66 years before their own, the Jewish advocacy organization announced a plan to aid Palestinian refugees that it ultimately shelved in response to Israeli pressure. And unless they had sifted through faded yellow papers in their archives, they could not have known that the first Middle East expert on the AJC’s staff, Don Peretz, lost his job because Israeli diplomats did not like his research on the Palestinian refugee issue.

Stephens and his audience cannot be faulted for being unaware of these past events because they are, more or less, unknown. Histories of American Jewish life make almost no mention of any communal concern for the Palestinians in the years after Israel’s creation, implying that it emerged, at the earliest, in the 1970s. Even studies of Jewish anti-Zionism and non-Zionism during Israel’s early years have tended to neglect the Palestinian question, focusing instead on debates over the role of nationalism in Jewish identity.

The fact that this historical undercurrent is so unknown is, to some extent, the result of concerted campaigns. From the beginning, Israeli diplomats watched American Jewish interest in Palestinian rights issues with deep suspicion. Declassified Israeli foreign ministry files reveal that some of Israel’s most celebrated diplomats secretly plotted to undermine American Jews who wrote about the sensitive question of Palestinian refugees, often succeeding in getting them removed from positions of influence. These diplomats persuaded reluctant employers to drop “troublesome” employees whom they had once trusted, quietly sidelining various American Jewish efforts to highlight or resolve Palestinian rights issues in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

These findings call for a rethinking of the very nature of the early Israel-American Jewish relationship. So much written about this era focuses on the emotional affinities that American Jews held for Israel, but far less has been written on Israel’s views of American Jewry. Rather than acting from a place of emotional connection and intracommunal kinship, Israeli officials acted in pragmatic ways toward the American Jewish community in the context of a wider public relations battle that raged between them and pro-Arab voices, which included Arab diplomats and some in the U.S. government. Israel during its early years was in a precarious place as it faced an economic crisis, high security costs, and the expense of resettling hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants. To meet these budgetary needs, the Israeli government turned to American Jews, who between 1948 and 1956 sent Israel more than $700 million in charitable donations and over $270 million in cash from bond sales, a combined sum that would total over $10 billion in 2022 dollars. American supporters of Israel, including Jews, also lobbied elected officials on diplomatic issues and successfully urged the government to send economic aid to Israel, which totaled $450 million (around $5 billion today) in combined loans and grants during that same eight-year stretch. Since the young country was reliant on American Jewish support in so many ways, perhaps it should be expected that its officials acted to ensure that the question of Palestinian rights did not weaken American Jewry’s commitment to Israel, harm Israel’s public image, and damage the U.S.–Israel relationship more broadly. Israel was, in short, acting as any state might, given the circumstances.

To a certain extent, my new book shows that Israeli leaders instrumentalized American Jewish organizations, which highlights the power of the young state and the political savvy of its diplomats. But to focus only on that would be an oversimplification. American Jewish organizations first had to yield some of their autonomy to the Jewish state. Doing so involved American Jews beginning to conceptualize their interests and ideals not as distinct from those of Israel but as identical to them—a process that blurred crucial differences between the community and the state. This required that these organizations turn away from a distinctive American Jewish identity as a historically dispossessed minority that has thrived in a liberal secular state and instead adopt the values of Israel, a country premised on meeting the needs of an ethno-national majority. To frame the question underlying this shift in biblical terms, as Lazaron might have: Is the core of Jewish identity remembering that “we were once strangers in the land of Egypt”? Or is it all about maintaining a restored Kingdom of David?

American Jews of the 1940s, 1950s, and beyond often had remarkably deep conversations about the meaning of Israel’s power over Palestinians. In recovering this history, Our Palestine Question serves not so much as a starting point for discussion as a medium that will inform conversations that are already taking place today and engage them with lost voices from the past. From there, one can see how the path to the present involved not fate but crucial decisions made over the course of decades that have shaped the politics of today surrounding Israel, the Palestinians, and the nature of transnational Jewish politics.

This history sheds light on political dynamics that at times feel very distant from those of the present. The American Jewish establishment did not always view anti-Zionism as inherently antisemitic. Some Jewish community leaders considered themselves “non-Zionist” until years after Israel’s founding. American Jewish institutions that had been established long before 1948 took time to accommodate themselves to the reality of Jewish statehood, a process that involved countless discussions about what Jewish sovereignty overseas meant for Jewish citizens of the United States. Jews had been a perpetual minority, so many American Jewish institutions had mobilized around liberal and left-leaning ideologies designed to protect minority groups and those seeking refuge. Suddenly, after 1948, there was a Jewish state that not only ruled over a non-Jewish minority group but also denied the right of refugees to return to their homes on the basis of their ethnicity and religion. Israel’s birth created a sense of cognitive dissonance for these American Jewish organizations as they attempted to come to terms with Israel’s power over the Palestinians without abandoning the ideologies that they regularly used to protect the rights of Jews outside the Jewish state.

More than 75 years later, American Jews are grappling with new aspects of these same crises, an internal struggle that the bloody Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has made all that more urgent. These dilemmas will not be resolved easily, but perhaps the only way to start working through them is by reflecting on their long, forgotten history.

Excerpt adapted from the introduction of Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948–1978, by Geoffrey Levin, published by Yale University Press, ©2023 by Geoffrey Levin. Refer to book for footnotes. All Rights Reserved.

Trump White House pharmacy improperly provided drugs and misused funds, Pentagon report says

Sun, January 28, 2024 

By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House Medical Unit during the Trump administration provided prescription drugs, including controlled substances, to ineligible staff and spent tens of thousands of dollars more on brand-name drugs than what generic equivalents would have cost, a Pentagon report shows.

The unit, part of the White House Military Office, did not comply with federal government and Department of Defense guidelines, the report, which was released on Jan. 8, found.

Ineligible staffers received free specialty care and surgery at military medical facilities and were provided with prescription drugs including controlled substances, in violation of federal law, the report also found.

"The White House Medical Unit's pharmaceutical management practices ineffectively used DoD funds by obtaining brand‑name medications instead of generic equivalents and increased the risk for the diversion of controlled substances," it said.

The unit lacked effective controls to ensure compliance with safety standards, was not subject to oversight by Military Health System leaders, and increased the risk to patient health and safety, the report said.

The unit spent $46,500 from 2017-2019 on 8,900 unit doses of Ambien, a brand name sleeping medication, which was 174 times more than the $270 the generic equivalent would have cost for the same amount of doses. It spent $98,000 on 4,180 unit doses of Provigil, a brand name stimulant, 55 times more than the $1,800 the generic equivalent would have cost, the report found.

Both drugs were disbursed without verifying patient identities. Opioids and sleeping medications were not properly accounted for and were tracked using error-filled or unreadable handwritten records, the report said.

The report presents the findings of the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General, which investigated the unit from September 2019 through February 2020 after receiving a complaint in 2018. It spans 2009 to 2018 and thus covers the presidential administrations of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, but most of its findings focus on 2017-2019 when Trump was president.

In response to the report's findings, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Lester Martinez-Lopez, sent a memo to the Inspector General concurring with all its recommendations.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Leslie Adler)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M REDUX

ADM postpones some exec bonuses amid accounting probe -memo


Sun, January 28, 2024 

Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo

By Chris Prentice and Karl Plume

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Archer-Daniels-Midland Co will delay paying performance bonuses to some executives until its financial statements are completed and audited, according to a staff memo seen by Reuters.

The delay, detailed in a memo sent to staff on Thursday, comes days after ADM sidelined its chief financial officer and brought in outside lawyers to launch an investigation into accounting practices last week.

The investigation is focused on the nutrition segment, a relatively small unit of the grains trading giant's business which played an outsized role in executive compensation.

Compensation from ADM's performance incentive plan for members of the company's executive council, including any who retired last year, would be postponed, the note said.

ADM declined to comment. Payments to other employees would be paid in March on the company's normal schedule, according to the staff memo.

The executive council includes several top executives and heads of other ADM businesses. Reuters could not determine exactly how many people are on the council.

According to the company's website detailing what it calls its Senior Leadership, of the 19 people listed, 14 are cited as being members of the executive council in their biographies.News of the investigation into accounting practices sent ADM shares tumbling 24% on Jan. 22, the biggest fall since 1929, according to the Center for Research in Security Prices.

ADM has delayed the release of its full-year 2023 financial results until further notice.

The probe focuses on ADM's Nutrition reporting segment and "intersegment transactions," the company has said. It started after ADM received a request for information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, ADM said. The SEC declined to comment.A change by ADM's Compensation and Succession Committee in 2020 tied half of long-term executive compensation to operating profit growth of the Nutrition segment, according to ADM proxy statements. Previously, the long-term compensation had been based on ADM's adjusted earnings, return on invested capital and relative total shareholder returns, according to the filings.

The Nutrition unit accounted for just 9.3% of ADM revenue that year, LSEG data showed.

ADM in 2023 reported average Nutrition operating profit growth from 2020 to 2022 of a larger-than-forecast 21.4% and which topped the company's average adjusted return on invested capital target. As a result, seven ADM executives were awarded more than 841,000 performance share units, twice the targeted payout, the proxy statements showed. Those PSUs were valued at nearly $69 million when they vested in February 2023.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Leslie Adler)

Mexico activists protest return of bullfights to capital

Reuters
Sun, January 28, 2024 





Mexico activists protest return of bullfights to capital
A demonstration against the return of bullfighting takes place outside the Plaza de Toros Mexico bullfighting ring, in Mexico City


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Animal rights defenders in Mexico City on Sunday marched to protest the return of the centuries-old spectacle of bullfighting to the capital after almost two years.

"Torture is not art, it is not culture," demonstrators shouted near the Plaza Mexico bullring. "Yes to bulls, no to bullfighting."

Mexico's capital held its first bullfight in almost two years on Sunday, after the Supreme Court paved the way for the spectacle's return in December.


Bullfights have been held in Mexico since the 16th century.

While a ruling suspended bullfighting in 2022 as a precautionary measure amid a longer-running case, the Supreme Court struck that decision down. Activists hope a final resolution will come later this year.

(Reporting by Toya Sarno Jordan and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Bullfighting brings out protesters in Mexico City

AFP
Sun, January 28, 2024

Activists on January 28, 2024 protested the restart of bullfighting in Mexico City, after the Supreme Court revoked a suspension that prevented them from taking place (Rodrigo Oropeza)


Activists protested on Sunday against a resumption of bullfighting in Mexico City, after the Supreme Court revoked an earlier suspension.

Dozens of people gathered in the central Glorieta de Insurgentes roundabout before heading to the city's Plaza de Toros bullring -- the largest in the world, with seating for 50,000 -- hours before the event was to start.

"We are completely against the fact bullfights have returned, and that these events continue to be held where only pleasure is sought through the torture of an animal," Jeronimo Sanchez, director of the NGO Animal Heroes, told AFP.

Protesters waved banners with images of bullfighting, urging "No to bullfighting" and "No more deaths of innocents."

Two demonstrators donned bull masks and covered themselves with blood-red paint.

Mexico has long been a bastion of the fights.

But in June 2022, a judge ordered the indefinite suspension of the centuries-old practice in Mexico City, agreeing with animal rights activists who had filed suit.

Last month the Supreme Court revoked the decision, although Mexican media said the judges ruled only on technical aspects and have yet to decide on the case's merits.

After the high court decision, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador proposed a referendum on the future of bullfighting in Mexico City.

So far, only a handful of Mexico's 32 states have banned the practice, which in 2018 generated millions in revenues and employed around 80,000 people.

bur/mdl/bbk

Bullfighting set to return to Mexico City amid legal battle between fans and animal rights defenders

Associated Press
Sun, January 28, 2024 

Mexican bullfighter Sergio Flores demonstrates his capework during a bullfighting workshop, in Aculco, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. The workshop is part of an initiative promoted by the Mexican Association of Bullfighting to attract new followers to this centuries-old tradition and confront the growing global movement driven by animal defenders. 

(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Bullfights were set to return to Mexico City on Sunday after the country’s highest court temporarily revoked a local ruling that sided with human rights defenders and suspended the events for more than a year and a half.

The resumption of bullfights in the Plaza México arena, the largest of its kind in the world, has raised expectations in the face of a lengthy legal battle between enthusiasts and opponents, who argue the practice violates animal welfare and affects people’s rights to a healthy environment.

Bullfighting is still allowed in much of Mexico. In the capital, the legal fight for its future is full of twists and turns.

In May 2022, a local court ordered an end to bullfighting activities at Plaza México in response to an injunction presented by the civil organization Justicia Justa, which defends human rights. But the activities were set to resume Sunday because the nation’s Supreme Court of Justice in December revoked the suspension while the merits of the case are discussed and a decision is reached on whether bullfights affect animal welfare.

Another civil organization filed an appeal Friday on animal welfare grounds in a last-ditch effort to prevent the activity from resuming. A ruling was not expected before Sunday’s event.

As an alternative to the court system, some local organizations called for a march in the Zócalo, or main plaza, in central Mexico City, as well as protests around Plaza México on Sunday.

Animal rights groups have been gaining ground in Mexico in recent years while bullfighting followers have suffered several setbacks. In some states such as Sinaloa, Guerrero, Coahuila, Quintana Roo and the western city of Guadalajara, judicial measures now limit the activity.

Ranchers, businessmen and fans maintain that the ban on bullfights affects their rights and puts at risk several thousand jobs linked to the activity, which they say generates about $400 million a year in Mexico. The National Association of Fighting Bull Breeders in Mexico estimates that bullfighting is responsible for 80,000 direct jobs and 146,000 indirect jobs.

The association has hosted events and workshops in recent years to promote bullfights and find new, younger fans.

Bullfight advocates working with young people to attract new followers in Mexico

FERNANDO LLANO
Sat, January 27, 2024 

Mexico Bullfighting Workshop
Farmhands lasso a calf during a bullfighting workshop at the the San Jose cattle ranch in Aculco, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. The workshop is part of an initiative promoted by the Mexican Association of Bullfighting to publicize the different activities that surround the breeding of fighting bulls. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

ACULCO, Mexico (AP) — The corral gate swings open and an energetic calf charges in, only to be wrestled stuggling to the ground and immobilized by having its legs tied. The men go to work vaccinating the calf and marking its number with a burning iron on its back.

It happened in one of the sessions of a workshop that José Arturo Jiménez gave this past week at his ranch in Aculco, a town in the State of Mexico near Mexico City, attended by about 40 university students and others.

The event was part of an initiative by the Mexican Association of Bullfighting to attract new followers for the centries-old tradition of bullfighting by educating young people about the different activities that surround the breeding of fighting bulls.

The association is trying to counter the growing global movement driven by animal defenders who seek to abolish bullfighting, which they consider torture of bulls.

Although bullfighting is still allowed in much of Mexico, it is suspended in some states, such as Sinaloa, Guerrero, Coahuila and Quintana Roo. There is also a legal fight in Mexico City that threatens the future of the capital's Plaza Mexico, the largest bullfighting arena in the world.

Jimenez admitted that a good part of the public that now attends bullfights in Mexico is not very young.

So Jiménez and other members of the association in recent years have dedicated themselves to promoting a hundred events and educational workshops for young people in different parts of Mexico.

“You have to give the elements to people so they can decide what they like and don’t like ... and at least let them know our truth and decide if it is good or bad,” the 64-year-old rancher said.

During the workshops, participants are taught the different aspects of the breeding of fighting bulls, their rigorous care and the studies that are conducted to determine the fighting spirit and proclivities of various animals.

Among those attending the rancher’s workshop was environmental engineering student Estefanía Manrique, who six years ago became drawn to bullfighting after recluctantly accompanying her mother to Plaza Mexico to see a cousin in a bullfight.

Before going “I had this idea that it was abuse,” Manrique said, but her perception was changed by the ritual surrounding the bullfight.

“I really like theater, and seeing how they analyze the bulls and move them according to the characteristics they have — and it even seems that they are dancing, other times they seem to be acting — I loved that,” the 22-year-old said.

She added that her love for bullfighting has caused problems among her university classmates because most of her social circle are more sympathetic to the view of animal rights activists, but she said she defends her passion.

Jimenez has high hopes that the incipient educational effort will succeed in drawing in new afficianados for bullfighting and ensure the survival of the tradition.

“We want them to continue more than with this party," he said. "Let people follow to go to the countryside, raise their animals, sow their seeds, harvest, have a bond with the land, eat healthy food and are not hypocritical, not made of glass and know that animals have to be killed to eat them and they have to be respected and cared for.”

Quebec sawmills losing money as lumber demand drops

CBC
Sun, January 28, 2024 

After hitting record pieces during the pandemic ​​of US$1,500 per thousand board feet in 2021, the price of lumber plunged in 2022. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press - image credit)


Sawmills in Quebec have not turned a profit for more than a year due to the drop in demand for lumber, according to industry experts.

After hitting record pieces during the pandemic of $1,500 US per thousand board feet in 2021, the price of lumber plunged in 2022 and now hovers around $575 for the same amount.

The situation pushed some sawmills in the province to temporarily slow down production in 2023 to limit deficits.


One sawmill in the Quebec region of Lanaudière, the Scierie Saint-Michel, is back to operating at full capacity — but at a loss, said CEO Jean-François Champoux.

"The entire forestry industry has been operating at a loss since the beginning of 2023," Champoux said.

The profitability of sawmills is tied to housing starts, which themselves are influenced by interest rates.

Those rates have tripled in the last two years, according to Francis Cortellino, economist for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Housing starts in Quebec fell by 32 per cent in 2023, he added.

Jean-François Champoux, CEO of a sawmill in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, says this sawmill is losing money while operating a full capacity right now.

Jean-François Champoux, CEO of a sawmill in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, says his sawmill is losing money despite operating at full capacity. (Radio-Canada)

"When interest rates are high, financing conditions are difficult and projects that were previously profitable are no longer profitable," Cortellino said.

"So projects are delayed. Projects are cancelled."

Champoux agrees.

"During the pandemic, we had a lot of purchases and renovations [but now] we have a more restricted market, because interest rates completely cancel out the construction market," he said.

However, there is also optimism for 2024.

Jean-François Samray, the director of the Quebec Forest Industry Council, said he expects interest rates to drop, which should mean more housing starts on the horizon.

"[It] looks set to be a good year in terms of market recovery. The American Federal Reserve has already indicated that March should be the month when rate cuts will occur," said Samray.

On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada announced it was keeping its key overnight interest rate at five per cent.

UAW President Shawn Fain goes on Fox, lists 5 key reasons why Trump lost union endorsement

REASON #1: HE IS A SCAB

Phoebe Wall Howard, Detroit Free Press
Sat, January 27, 2024

A clip of a Fox News interview with UAW President Shawn Fain is getting attention from viewers on YouTube not because the labor organization endorsed President Joe Biden for the 2024 election cycle but because the union leader listed so many reasons why former President Donald Trump didn't deserve the support of working-class people.

Podcast host David Pakman, who has more than 2 million subscribers, spotlighted Friday the 3:53 minute segment where Fain gave a withering series of examples on why he advises his union, which has an estimated 400,000 members, that include an estimated 150,000 autoworkers from the Detroit Three.

Initially Pakman said the endorsement of the Democrat seemed obvious despite the fact that Fain has said for months that the union gave no free rides to any politician for this election cycle, that the endorsement would need to be earned. The UAW has long been a political mix of workers, especially when Trump faced Hillary Clinton in 2016.

UAW President Shawn Fain speaks to the media in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Fain visited the Volkswagen plant with workers, community and faith leaders, and CALEB (Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality, and Benevolence). The group delivered a letter to Volkswagen management, "demanding the company end its union-busting and intimidation."

When Fox host Neil Cavuto asked on Thursday why the UAW didn't endorse Trump. Fain calmly responded, "If you look just at the facts and the body of work of both candidates and both of them, in their own words. Nowhere in history has Donald Trump ever stood for the American worker. He stands against pretty much everything we stand for."

Fain continued, "We had to look at a lot of things and overall, you know, we decided our contract fight with the Big Three, our most successful contract in history, President Biden stood there with us on the picket line, unlike President Trump back in '19, when GM was on strike for 40 days and he was completely not existent and silent on the issue. I can go through a list of things, the difference in the candidates. it's very clear to us who stands with working-class people in this country and who stands against them."

Then Caputo pointed out that Teamsters President Sean O'Brien met with Trump and other major presidential hopefuls, while Fain did not.

More: ‘Let me be blunt’: UAW VP for GM has strong words about Trump’s visit to Michigan

Fain said, "In 2008-2009, the economic recession, Donald Trump blamed the workers for what was wrong with these companies. In 2015, he talked about doing a rotation of good paying jobs in the Midwest, somewhere where they pay less and have people begging for their jobs back at lower wages. Also, in '15, when Volkswagen workers voted to organize, he put an NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) in place that killed the organizing. ... In '19, when he was president, he didn't support the strike. He told the workers at Lordstown (Ohio) Assembly Plant, which was closing, 'don't sell your houses.' Then he did nothing to support them. You know, versus President Biden, who, in 2023, when a plant was going to close in Belvidere, Illinois, for Stellantis, he stood with those workers. He helped us save a community and helped bring not one plant but two plants back to life and he stood with our members on the picket line in our fight for economic justice."

Fain, who endorsed Biden on Jan. 24, called Trump a "scab." He earlier said workers can't continue to elect members of the "billionaire class" and expect them to help factory workers and middle-class Americans.

The UAW won a record contract with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis in 2023 after striking all three automakers. After union members ratified contracts, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Tesla announced pay raises for their nonunion U.S. workers.

More: Ford begins $50,000 buyout offers for skilled, production UAW members

The Detroit-based union is currently attempting to organize nonunion carmakers, including Tesla and Volkswagen and others, some of which work with organized labor outside the U.S.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press

Canadian Palestinian citizen journalist, who lived in Calgary, reported missing in Gaza

CBC
Sun, January 28, 2024 

A member of a team supporting Mansour Shouman, a Canadian Palestinian man documenting humanitarian efforts during the Israel-Hamas war, says loved ones have lost contact with the citizen journalist who was in Gaza. (The Canadian Press - image credit)

Government officials in Ottawa say they are monitoring the situation surrounding a missing Calgary man who was working as a citizen journalist and aid worker in Gaza.

Family and friends of Mansour Shouman say they haven't heard from him in a week and they are growing more and more concerned over his welfare.

Shadi Sakr is a member of the volunteer team in Canada that helps Shouman post videos online. He says the last time Shouman was heard from was Jan. 21 at 3:02 p.m. ET, when he sent a video from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

"His last message was, 'Please get this back to me quickly. I don't have a lot of time,'" Sakr said in an interview with CBC News on Sunday.

"That was the last message we heard from him."

Sakr said workers with the relief organizations Shouman was assisting saw him taken into custody by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

"They said they saw him leave the Nasser Hospital to go to Rafah and that he was apprehended on his way by the IDF," Sakr said.

Zaheera Soomar, another member of the Canadian team supporting Shouman, told The Canadian Press that three eyewitnesses told her group that Shouman was taken by the IDF on Tuesday.

CBC News has not been able to verify this account. A request for comment from the IDF was not answered as of publication.

In a statement released Saturday evening, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Grantly Franklin wrote, "Global Affairs Canada is aware of a Canadian who is missing in Gaza. Canadian officials continue to monitor the situation closely and are in direct contact with the family members. Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed."

Family fled in November

Shouman has been a Canadian citizen since 2006. Two of his five children were born in Canada, but the family went back to the Palestinian territory last year after seven years in Calgary to be closer to family and live a life that was tied to their Islamic and social norms.

In November, Shouman's wife and their children fled the besieged Palestinian territory for the United Arab Emirates. But Shouman decided to stay.

Since then, he has reached millions of English speakers through his daily social media updates about the conflict.

Shouman's mother, Dr. Mai Hussein, spoke to CBC News from her home in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., on Sunday.

She said the last time she spoke to her son was Jan. 21. Since then, she has been in contact with the Canadian government about his disappearance but said she has not received any updates since Friday.

"Can the Canadian government do something and ask IDF, or ask Israel ... is my son with them or not?" Hussein said.

"He has nothing to do with them. He is only a civilian journalist trying to help people."

Shouman's supporters started a petition on Saturday, calling on the Israeli government to release him. As of Sunday afternoon, over 90,000 signatures had been collected.