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A group of Jewish Google employees are urging the company to increase its support for the Palestinians amid a deadly Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza. The conflict began with an Israeli attempt to evict the Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, and escalated as the militants fired rockets at Jerusalem and Israel responded in the air.
In an internal letter, Google employees ask CEO Sundar Pichai to issue a statement condemning the attacks, including “direct recognition of the damage caused to the Palestinians by the Israeli military and gang violence.” The letter currently has 250 signatures. (An external version of the note can be found here).
The request comes from a new human resources team set up last year in response to Zionist supporters of “Jewglers” – Google’s official Jewish ERG. Jews have tried to be apolitical, but two current workers say it has supported Israeli-friendly talks and is not a safe space to express Zionist beliefs.
This rupture led to the formation of a Jewish diaspora in Tech – a group of Jewish anti-nationalists within Google. “We were forced to form our own space because we were not literally allowed to express our opinions in the ERG,” says the group’s product marketing manager.
Now members of the new organization are calling on Google to support freedom of speech internally – especially around anti-Zionist perspectives. “Google is the world’s largest search engine, and suppressing freedom of speech within a company is a danger not only internally to Google employees but to all people around the world,” they wrote in frequently asked questions.
They also want Google to terminate all business agreements that support “human rights violations by Israeli Palestinian states, such as the Israeli Defense Forces”.
Members of the group say they were encouraged to write a letter after the Jews did not submit a statement condemning the violence against the Palestinians. One employee said Limit that the people of the group promoted funding opportunities in favor of Israel.
Read the full letter below:
Google did not respond immediately to the comment request Limit.
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