United Airlines pilot removed from service over pro-Hamas posts

A United Airlines pilot has been removed from service after social media posts surfaced showing the man expressing support for Hamas in the wake of the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

United told the Daily Mail on Tuesday that pilot Ibrahim R. Mossallam had been removed from service with pay as an investigation into the posts is carried out. The airline said he was removed from service on November 20 after his social media posts gained attention from the public.

Mossallam described the attack, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and around 240 people were taken hostage from Israel, as "resistance by brave people who have endured decades of occupation, oppression, humiliation, apartheid, and straight up murder."

"For all my friends here in FB land with Questions/Thoughts/Assumptions/Critique about whats transpiring in Palestine, currently in response to the Zionist occupation, please work on expanding your media literacy," he wrote.

Mossallam said that the Oct.7 attack "was not an unprovoked attack, but a response to this past years attacks by the Zionist regime."

In February 2021, Mossallam was appointed to the Council on American-Islamic Relations - New York as board vice president. He has served roles in the Muslim American Society’s national branch, as well as its Brooklyn and New York chapters.