Rania Khalek
Rania Khalek (born May 27, 1986) is a Lebanese American writer and political activist. Her views have been described as far-left, pro-Assadist, and pro-Putin. She has written for politically progressive/left wing publications, including "The Nation", "The Intercept", Al Jazeera, "Salon", "Vice", AlterNet, "Mondoweiss", and Truthout. In 2017 she co-hosted the podcast show "Unauthorized Disclosure" with Kevin Gosztola at Shadowproof. Khalek previously served as an associate editor for the pro-Palestinian website "The Electronic Intifada". Career. Khalek has reported on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Islamophobia, the  Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, the Syrian Civil War, United States foreign policy in the Middle East, US presidential elections and the United States criminal justice system. She was a contributor to AlterNet from 2011 to 2017. Khalek contributed to Truthout between 2012 and 2014. She was a columnist for "Extra!", the magazine of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), from 2013 to 2015. She launched the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure", with Gosztola in 2014. Khalek was a contributor to "The Electronic Intifada" from 2013 to 2016. She served on the editorial board for a few years but stepped down  from her position in October 2016. Her planned appearance at a conference of the British Syrian Society, an organisation founded by the father-in-law of Bashar al-Assad, led to disagreements with her colleagues at the organisation. Khalek became a contributor for Maffick Media's "In the Now" and "Soapbox" video channels. Maffick receives funding from its parent company, Ruptly, a subsidiary of the television network RT. RT is a subsidiary of ANO TV Navasti in Moscow, which is the umbrella non-profit media organization funded by the Russian government. She has appeared on Al Jazeera English, "The Majority  Report with Sam Seder", "The Jimmy Dore Show", and RT America. She was a correspondent for media project "Redfish", whose staff were primarily involved in Russian state media and whose main broadcast outlet was RT. Viewpoints and reception. Israel. In an address at Berkeley in 2015, Khalek said Israel was responsible for exporting military technology intended for repressing minorities having tested it in Gaza. She compared Israel to ISIS asserting they "have shared values". In 2016, Khalek and other activists protested a speech at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum given by Avital Leibovich, a retired colonel in the Israel Defense Forces  and director of the Jerusalem office of the American Jewish Committee, declaring, "free Palestine". According to Jonathan Marks, a professor of political science at Ursinus College, Khalek is "not a marginal figure" within the movement to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) from Israel. Khalek has criticized "The Nation" magazine on the basis that while the magazine has published numerous articles in support of the BDS movement, it nonetheless "reinforces" the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories "by privileging Jewish voices over Palestinian ones." Eric Alterman took issue with Khalek's statement on his blog for "The Nation", accusing her of  antisemitic implication, "have you noticed what the magazine's real problem is? Too many Jews!" In response to Alterman's comment, "The Nation"s editors pointed out that Khalek had not said too many Jews write for "The Nation" but rather that ""The Nation" has published more Jewish than Palestinian voices". Syria. In 2013, during the Syrian civil war, Khalek wrote: "Much of the debate over U.S. intervention in Syria boils down the conflict there to a clash between the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and an armed rebellion in which al-Qaeda affiliates play a significant role. Typically ignored  in that conversation are the voices of the non-violent opposition movement that took to the streets to challenge Assad in March 2011, and which has persisted against great odds." Khalek was scheduled to visit Syria in 2016 to participate in a conference sympathetic to the Assad government, but dropped out due to ensuing controversy. In September 2019, she formed part of a US delegation, along with Ajamu Baraka and Max Blumenthal and others, in a visit to Syria to attend a trade union forum sponsored by the Assad government, to stand "against the economic blockade, imperialist interventions and terrorism , at a time when entering to the country was virtually impermissible for other Americans. She was reported by Bellingcat in 2019 to have received financial assistance, the Serena Shim Award, from the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, a pro-Assad lobby group. United States. During the 2016 presidential election campaign, after Khalek wrote that Clinton is also dangerous to world stability. And unlike Trump, she has the blood on her hands to prove it." She said that "Trump is riling up fascist sentiments", but "he's doing so by tapping into legitimate anger at the negative consequences of  trickle-down neoliberal economics driven by establishment politicians like Clinton." James Kirchick described Khalek as one of a group of progressives who, in Kirchick's opinion, were "behaving like Weimar-era German communists, who, on Joseph Stalin's orders, attacked Social Democrats as 'social fascists' rather than battle Nazi brown-shirts." She trended on Twitter in 2019 when Ilhan Omar, a member of Congress, retweeted Khalek, who in turn defended Omar for her opposition to perceived U.S. efforts to change the government of Venezuela, a position which was commented as "controversial" by "The Jerusalem Post". "This is the best and  most detailed statement I've seen so far from a Democrat on Venezuela", Khalek wrote. "Omar, as well as her other colleagues who spoke out, should be commended for opposing Trump's coup attempt, this will surely provoke malicious attacks from the pro-war crowd. Very brave." Other issues. On March 9, 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center published an article called "The multipolar spin: how fascists operationalize left-wing resentment", in which Khalek and several other left-wing journalists were mentioned. After complaints that the article falsely portrayed them as "white supremacists, fascists, anti-Semites, and engaging in a  conspiracy with the Putin regime to promote such views", the SPLC retracted the article and issued an apology. In 2021, an image she posted on Instagram of a billboard celebrating Iranian general Qassim Suleimani and Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was deleted by the company under its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy.