Jewish employees urge Google to support Palestinians, reconsider contracts with Israeli entities
(JTA) — A group of Jewish employees at Google wants the company to speak out in support of Palestinians and consider terminating any contracts the technology giant may have with the Israeli military or other “institutions that support Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.”
The Google workers published their call to action in an internal letter, and at least 250 people have signed on, according to the tech news site The Verge. It is unclear how many of them are Jewish because the letter is signed “Jewish Googlers, allies, and external supporters.”
A public version of the letter was posted online here.
The letter says that CEO Sundar Pichai should put out a statement about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas that would recognize the “harm done to Palestinians by Israeli military and gang violence.”
Google is also being asked to take a stance on the right to express strident criticism of Israel, even if it veers into anti-Zionism.
“Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism and this conflation harms the pursuit of justice for Palestinians and Jews alike by limiting freedom of expression and distracting from real acts of antisemitism,” the letter says.
The authors of the letter call themselves “Jewish Diaspora in Tech,” a new employee resource group within Google formed as an alternative to the “Jewglers,” an employee resource group where pro-Israel sentiment tends to dominate, according to The Verge.
“We were compelled to form our own space because of the fact that we were quite literally not allowed to express our viewpoints in the ERG,” an unnamed Google product manager was quoted as saying by The Verge.
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