Rania Khalek
| Rania Khalek | |
|---|---|
 Rania_Khalek,_The_Big_Picture,_May_2012.png | |
| Born | |
| 💼 Occupation | writer |
| 🌐 Website | raniakhalek |
Rania Khalek is a Lebanese American journalist and political activist.[1] [2]She has written for politically progressive/left wing publications, including The Nation, The Intercept, Al Jazeera, Salon, Vice, AlterNet, Mondoweiss, and Truthout.[3] In 2017 she co-hosted the podcast show Unauthorized Disclosure with Kevin Gosztola at Shadowproof.[4] Khalek previously served as an associate editor for the pro-Palestinian news website The Electronic Intifada.[5]
Domestic and international issues[edit]
She 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 US criminal justice system.[5][6][7][8] According to Engadget and CNN, Khalek is part of a Russian campaign to influence American opinion via social media.[9][10]
Khalek is a contributor to RT America (formerly known as Russia Today), and frequently appears on Sputnik, two media outlets funded and controlled by the Russian government.[6][2][11] As of 219, she was working for the Kremlin-backed websites "In the Now," "Soapbox," and "Maffick."[10] Sputnik described Khalek as "a freelance journalist and producer for the Maffick media outlet and the "In the Now" project, a Facebook channel sponsored by Russia Today."[12] In November 2017 Khalek said she was working as a correspondent for the Russian government-controlled website, "Redfish".[11] A brief Twitter storm erupted in 2019 when Congressman Ilhan Omar retweeted Khalek.[2]
During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Khalek wrote that Donald Trump "is hardly the candidate of peace. Nor is he a credible messenger. He’s advocated for killing the families of terrorists, endorses torture, and in his tirade against Clinton, he applauded Saddam Hussein for executing people without trial...Trump did not oppose the invasion [of Iraq] at the time”.[13] She has also criticized Hillary Clinton and her support for the Iraq War and NATO-led military intervention in Libya, and Clinton's support of dictatorships that rule the Persian Gulf monarchies.[13] During the 2016 Presidential 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," James Kirchick described Khalek as one of "Putin's pawns," a group of progressives who, in Kirchik'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."[14] She has been described as a "Russian agitpropist" by Nicholas Clairmont writing in the Washington Examiner.[15]
Khalek called Wahhabism a "toxic and hateful religion practiced in Saudi Arabia".[16] She has criticized U.S.-Saudi Arabia alliance and U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[16][7]
According to Jonathan Marks, a professor of political science at Ursinus College, Khalek is "not a marginal figure" within the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel movement.[17] In 2016 she stormed the lecture hall at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum to disrupt a speech given by Avital Leibovich, a retired colonel in the Israel Defense Forces and director of the Jerusalem office of the American Jewish Committee.[18] Khalek has criticized The Nation magazine on the grounds that while magazine has published numerous articles in support of the Palestinian cause, it nonetheless "reinforces" the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and Israel's treatment of Palestinians "by privileging Jewish voices over Palestinian ones." The critic of Israel policy Eric Alterman took issue with Khalek's statement, accusing her of antisemitic implication, "have you noticed what the magazine’s real problem is? Too many Jews!"[19]
Khalek's writing has been described as "controversial" by Seth Frantzman writing in The Jerusalem Post.[2]
Khalek wrote that al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria played a significant role in the armed rebellion against the Assad regime and "while many Syrians who first engaged in peaceful protest later turned to arms in the face of the regime's crackdown, others continue to do non-violent political work."[8] The Israeli newspaper Haaretz accuses Khalek of "publishing smear attacks against NGOs, medics, journalists, first responders and Syrian civil society groups" opposing the Assad regime during the Syrian Civil War.[20]
References[edit]
- ↑ Hand, Mark (February 9, 2015). "What Israel Does to Palestinians Doesn't Stay in Palestine (profile of Khalek)". CounterPunch. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Frantzman, Seth (26 January 2019). "Rep. Omar slammed for supporting Venezuela's brutal regime". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ↑ https://muckrack.com/raniakhalek/articles
- ↑ "Unauthorized Disclosure". Shadowproof. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Rania Khalek". The Intercept. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "RT profile".
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "An unworthy war? US/UK reporting on Yemen". al-Jazeera. 23 June 2018.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Syria's nonviolent resistance is dying to be heard". Al-Jazeera. 9 September 2013.
- ↑ Fingas, Jon (16 February 2019). "Facebook suspends Pages from Russia-linked viral video company". Engadget. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Russia is backing a viral video company aimed at American millennials". CNN. 18 February 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Davis, Charles (1 February 2018). "'Grassroots' Media Startup Redfish Is Supported by the Kremlin". Daily Beast. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ↑ "Twitter Mob Incensed By US Congresswoman Retweeting Rania Khalek". Sputkik. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Donald Trump Calls Hillary Clinton "Trigger Happy" as She Courts Neocons". The Intercept. May 12, 2016.
- ↑ Kirchick, James (15 August 2016). "Beware the Hillary Clinton-Loathing, Donald Trump-Loving Useful Idiots of the Left". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
- ↑ Clarimont, Nicholas (1 February 2019). "War of Words". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Khalek, Rania (April 18, 2018). "Saudi Arabia's superficial reforms won't mask ugliness of Wahhabism". RT.
- ↑ "An Anti-Israel Activist in Syria". commentarymagazine. commentarymagazine. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
- ↑ Amouyal, Noa (9 June 2016). "Storming Speech". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
- ↑ Davis, Charles (15 January 2014). "On Israel, diversity and media: Eric Alterman addresses his recent disputes "If they had said the Nation has too many black people writing about civil rights, wouldn't people object?"". Salon. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
- ↑ "As Trump Shores Up Assad's Genocidal Regime, America's Hard Left Is Cheering Him on". Haaretz. 20 July 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
External links[edit]
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