Jan
Bring Mansour Home: Calls for Canada to Intervene as Palestinian Canadian in Gaza Disappears, Believed Taken by IDF
Written by Making HeadlinesMansour Shouman has gone missing. It is believed he was abducted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). He regularly reported what was on the siege of Gaza thorugh his social media and was regularly interviewed by English language meeting about what life was like on the ground for Gazan civilians.
According to the campaign, Bring Mansour Home, "Mansour Shouman, a Palestinian-Canadian father, son, and humanitarian was abducted on January 23rd, 2024 while traveling from Khan Younis to Rafah in Gaza. His work involved directly reporting from Gaza and providing aid to displaced and injured citizens impacted by the relentless campaign of violence by the IDF against Palestinians. This incident is not just an attack on one individual but a blatant disregard for human rights." There is currently a petition on Change.org, addressed to the Israeli government and IDF, demanding Mansour's release. To sign the petition, click here
Prominent American imam Omar Suleiman, who conducted an interview with Mansour at the begining of January, has also posted a demand that Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take action to demand the release of the Palestinian Canadian. Canadians who wish to send an email to Prime Minister Trudeau and other Canadian officials can find an email template to use online by clicking here.
Mansour Shouman is an alumni of Queens' University (Sci'O5). In early November 2024, he was interviewed by The Queen's University journal about his life in again after 29 days of attacks. "Hanging abandoned in an empty house is Mansour Shouman’s Queen’s engineering jacket, with his graduating year of ’05 stitched into the arm," Sophia Coppolino wrote, "Shouman intends to retrieve it—if his house is still standing." To read the full profile on Mansour in The Queen's Journal, click here.
Before moving to Gaza with his family, he called Calgary home, where he was the youth and outreach directory for the Muslim Council of Calgary. Mansour was on the list of Canadians who could be evaculated from Gaza in the early weeks of the attacks on Gaza. His wife and five children were evacuated but he chose to stay behind.
In an interview with CP24, a Calgary news outlet in Novemember 2024, Mansour explained why he stayed in Gaza: "the first is to continue the work that we are doing here in terms of trying to continue reaching out to the public outside of Gaza in the English language through TV channels like yourself explaining to them the humanitarian crisis that's happening to 2.3 million civilians here in addition to that as the head of the household, as a Palestinian who is originally from Jerusalem and my ancestors were forced out in 1948 and 1967 from our lands by the occupation forces, we don't want this history to repeat itself again here in Gaza."
To contact the Bring Mansour Home campaign email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To learn more and follow Mansour's social media that is currently run by his team in his absence, click here
Watch Iman Omar Sulaiman's interview with Mansour Shouman from January 6th 2024 below:
