Mason's manager and wife, Jyll Rosenfeld, who was in New York at the time, said that Hanania could not perform because he was "Palestinian" and not Jordanian as Mason had thought. After the controversy broke making international headlines (that lasted seven days), Zanies' management claimed the cancellation was because of Hanania's alleged "inexperience" as a professional comedian, even though Hanania had performed 35 shows for Zanies. But Jyll Rosenfeld told a reporter for the Associated Press that Mason was "uncomfortable" being on the same stage with Hanania because Hanania is a "Palestinian."[8] Hanania later developed a unique Palestinian-Jewish stand-up comedy routine that features his experiences growing up Arab in America and satirizing his marriage to his wife, Alison, who is Jewish.[9] With Israeli comedians Charley Warady and Yisrael Campbell, and African American comedian-journalist Aaron Freeman, he co-founded "The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour", which broke the Arab and Palestinian comedian taboo of refusing to appear with Israelis.