Journalist Laments That ‘You Can’t Hijack Planes’ in Protest Anymore

Isaac SchorrFeb 27th, 2024, 10:14 am
 

(Sipa via AP Images)

Mohammed El-Kurd, a celebrated Palestinian poet and The Nation‘s Palestine correspondent, wistfully lamented that “you can’t hijack planes” and therefore “just can’t be” anymore on X Monday.

“You can’t protest peacefully. You can’t boycott. You can’t hunger strike. You can’t hijack planes. You can’t block traffic. You can’t throw Molotovs. You can’t self-immolate. You can’t heckle politicians. You can’t march. You can’t riot. You can’t dissent. You just can’t be,” wrote el-Kurd.

In addition to his advocacy on behalf of would-be hijackers, El-Kurd has has argued that “Zionism is apartheid, it’s genocide, it’s murder” and even a “death cult.” Last fall, El-Kurd reacted to the October 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel by suggesting it was morally justified and mocking those who condemned it.

“The siege is the provocation. Forcing people to live in an open-air prison is an escalation. Occupation, colonization, and land-theft are the root cause of the ‘conflict.’ Everything else is retaliation,” he argued in one post.

In another, he chided Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for condemning the attack.

“They will never accept u into their club babe,” said el-Kurd.

On X, El-Kurd was pilloried for his apparent defense of hijacking as a legitimate form of protest.

“I laughed really hard at this until I realized he was serious. Damn elites and their ‘don’t hijack planes or throw Molotov cocktail rules. They’re keeping me from expressing myself!'” mused Jonah Goldberg of The Dispatch and CNN.

“No Mohammed, you can’t hijack planes, riot, or murder people. Sorry. But it appears you can be a correspondent for @thenation and give lectures at @Princeton,” replied the American Enterprise Institute’s Christina Hoff Sommers.

National Review‘s Charles C.W. Cooke had quite a lot of fun with El-Kurd’s original post and a follow-up in defense of him.

“Yet another thing 9/11 took from us: the joy of those perfectly normal non-violent plane hijackings we all enjoyed. I remember it well. ‘Do you have a layover?’ my parents would ask. ‘That depends,’ I’d answer, impishly. And then we’d all laugh, and shout, ‘fingers crossed!'” he joked. “It was a simpler time back then. In the 1980s, my mother hijacked at least four commercial airliners in protest at the ongoing roadworks on the A14. My uncle got to seven. My sister tried once, after she was grounded, but she couldn’t get the Stanley knife to open.”

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