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Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

timesofisrael.com

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Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#11
post #6

“In her statement, Koren also singled out “Jewglers,” a forum for Jewish Google employees, for not accommodating Jews who hold anti-Zionist views.” Zionism is the belief that Israel has the right to exist, and that Jews have the right to live in Israel. If you are against this, your views are quite extremist and it is hard to find understanding and accommodation, particularly among fellow Jews.

The wiki on Zionism says this toward the end:

“Anti-Zionists view it as a colonialist, racist or exceptionalist ideology or movement.”

Characterising the groups views as believing Israel should not exist seems disingenuous.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#12
I applaud her for her courage. Israel has seemingly been given leeway to do as they please when it comes to Palestianian freedom of movement. And Google's none the better with their AI drone programme.

I mean Palestinians have it hard to put it lightly. Israel is an Apartheid State that's enacting a harsh Apartheid system against these people:

* Illegal Settlers living in Palestine can vote in Israel but not Palestinians. Apartheid South Africa did the same, they put the people in their own "country" and so couldn't vote. Israel doesn't want 2 states as that would mean millions more voting.

* Israel has ethnically cleansed and fragmented areas into [isolated cantons divided by Israeli settlements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_enclaves), and implemented [lebensraum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum) tactics. This was called [Bantustans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantustan) in South Africa.

* [It denies Palestinian fishing past 3 nautical miles in some areas, and not past 15 nautical miles](https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/styles/inline100...)

* [The Apartheid Separation wall](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/73/81/d07381fffef632350bcb...)?

* The settlers killing, and burning homes to get rid of people and destroying olive tree groves.

* [They control the water completely](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in...).

* [They get 12 hours of electricity a day](https://www.ochaopt.org/page/gaza-strip-electricity-supply).

* Palestinians didn't have 3G until 2018, their access is also restricted.

* They [blockade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_the_Gaza_Strip) Gaza, making it a prison.

* [Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/opinion/not-all-israeli-c...)

* There were `5,248,185` Palestinian refugees in 2020; that's equal to half the population of Israel.

* [Israel dictates who you can marry](https://preview.redd.it/1k7jnev0pq971.jpg?width=1024&auto=we...)

* [Segregated road system](https://s3.amazonaws.com/VP2/visuals/en/4db97391fe7cb2462249...)

* 50% of Palestinians are children.

As someone from South Africa, I've seen ethnic cleansing and Israel is doing worse. Israel is absolutely an Apartheid state. Various human rights organisations have already stated this

And it seems in the comments here, Zionism is conflated with anti-semitism. Zionism is extreme nationalism (at the expense of innocent Palestinians), not anti-Jew.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#13
post #6

“In her statement, Koren also singled out “Jewglers,” a forum for Jewish Google employees, for not accommodating Jews who hold anti-Zionist views.” Zionism is the belief that Israel has the right to exist, and that Jews have the right to live in Israel. If you are against this, your views are quite extremist and it is hard to find understanding and accommodation, particularly among fellow Jews.

Zionism is an anti-democratic, explicitly racist belief that only Jews should have governing power over all land west of the jordan river.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#14
post #8

> “Due to retaliation, a hostile environment, and illegal actions by the company, I cannot continue to work at Google and have no choice but to leave the company at the end of this week,” Ariel Koren said in a statement posted Tuesday to Medium. Many people is missing the point. "Retaliation" is illegal. > Google denied retaliation and the National Labor Relations Board found no wrongdoing after an investigation In m…

Boycotting Israel gets your company in trouble with various state governments in the US, like no supplying services to the government, and in Arkansas, it gets even more viral in that people you supply services to are forbidden from supplying services to the government.

My RH contract specifically forbade boycotting Israel, I'm sure for those reasons.

And of course, I imagine that Israel has laws about doing business there that look dimly on being boycotted.

It's very very dumb legislation, and I think derives from a very odd facet of belief found in some American Protestant belief systems - that for Jesus to come back, the State of Israel has to exist.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#15
post #8

> “Due to retaliation, a hostile environment, and illegal actions by the company, I cannot continue to work at Google and have no choice but to leave the company at the end of this week,” Ariel Koren said in a statement posted Tuesday to Medium. Many people is missing the point. "Retaliation" is illegal. > Google denied retaliation and the National Labor Relations Board found no wrongdoing after an investigation In m…

Boycotting Israel gets your company in trouble with various state governments in the US, like no supplying services to the government, and in Arkansas, it gets even more viral in that people you supply services to are forbidden from supplying services to the government. My RH contract specifically forbade boycotting Israel, I'm sure for those reasons. And of course, I imagine that Israel has laws about doing business…

[deleted]

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#16
post #8

> “Due to retaliation, a hostile environment, and illegal actions by the company, I cannot continue to work at Google and have no choice but to leave the company at the end of this week,” Ariel Koren said in a statement posted Tuesday to Medium. Many people is missing the point. "Retaliation" is illegal. > Google denied retaliation and the National Labor Relations Board found no wrongdoing after an investigation In m…

Yup, I can see no sign of retaliation: "she would be transferred to Sao Paolo, Brazil".

I mean, who isn't ready to upend their lives, leave all their friends and family to move into a poorer country on another continent for the sake of their employer? There is only one name for that: "huge opportunity", thank you lots Google for not being evil.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#17
post #6

“In her statement, Koren also singled out “Jewglers,” a forum for Jewish Google employees, for not accommodating Jews who hold anti-Zionist views.” Zionism is the belief that Israel has the right to exist, and that Jews have the right to live in Israel. If you are against this, your views are quite extremist and it is hard to find understanding and accommodation, particularly among fellow Jews.

There are plenty of anti-zionists, even Jewish anti-zionists.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#18
post #6

“In her statement, Koren also singled out “Jewglers,” a forum for Jewish Google employees, for not accommodating Jews who hold anti-Zionist views.” Zionism is the belief that Israel has the right to exist, and that Jews have the right to live in Israel. If you are against this, your views are quite extremist and it is hard to find understanding and accommodation, particularly among fellow Jews.

> If you are against this, your views are quite extremist and it is hard to find understanding and accommodation, particularly among fellow Jews.

It's a bit more complicated than this. Israel militarily occupies Palestine. And they institute an apartheid system that is unfair to Palestinians, denying basic rights to Palestinians -- they can take your property, they can restrict your travel, they can strangle your economy. And they do.

You might say Israelis deserve to live life in peace, but shouldn't Palestinians as well? The state of Israel was carved out of Palestine, so can you blame the original inhabitants of the area that they feel something was taken (and still being takene) from them, and can you blame anyone from sympathizing with that perspective? You don't have to be anti-Zionist to at least empathize with the complexity of the situation & understand that the state of Israel has enacted some very problematic policies and conducted problematic actions. I don't think it's fair to just call it extremist by any means.

There are also levels to everything. Some folks are unhappy with the Israeli state as it exists today, but by saying they're anti-zionist & "Israel shouldn't exist" they typically aren't advocating for murder, they're advocating for a one-state solution so that inhabitants of Palestine/Israel can get democratic representation & equal rights. Again, not a crazy take.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#19

I applaud her for her courage. Israel has seemingly been given leeway to do as they please when it comes to Palestianian freedom of movement. And Google's none the better with their AI drone programme. I mean Palestinians have it hard to put it lightly. Israel is an Apartheid State that's enacting a harsh Apartheid system against these people: * Illegal Settlers living in Palestine can vote in Israel but not Palestin…

in Italy whatever is said against the weekly human right violation perpetrated by Israel, newspapers will give space to the rabbi of Rome saying something like: "seems we have a nazi problem here in Italy, all the people criticising Israel clearly are just nazis in disguise"

Same thing happened in Germany when they tried to forbid religious circumcision on infants.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#20

I applaud her for her courage. Israel has seemingly been given leeway to do as they please when it comes to Palestianian freedom of movement. And Google's none the better with their AI drone programme. I mean Palestinians have it hard to put it lightly. Israel is an Apartheid State that's enacting a harsh Apartheid system against these people: * Illegal Settlers living in Palestine can vote in Israel but not Palestin…

Calling Israel an appartheid state, and your specific examples betray a state of mind which applies arbitrary standards to Israel that never get applied to literally ANY other country in the world.

Some of your specific examples: "Illegal Settlers living in Palestine can vote in Israel but not Palestinians." Americans living abroad in France can vote in American elections, but note the French people. Therefore the US is an appartheid state.

How is controlling your state border via a wall appartheid?

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