As much as I tire of activist employee stories, at least in this instance she has resigned rather than trying to force other employees out for having different opinions which is often the case in these news items, so respect to her for that.
Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
61–70 of 272 posts
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I grew up in an Evangelical church and I attend a Protestant church now (although not American) and the only place I've ever heard people claim that my fellow congregants believe that about Israel is online from people outside the church. I'm sure you'll be able to find _someone_ who believes it, but it is so weird to see people claiming something as a fact about your church that you've never encountered in nearly 40…
I believe your personal experience. Anecdotes are not data, though.
> > odd facet of belief found in some American Protestant belief systems - that for Jesus to come back, the State of Israel has to exist
This seems to be overwhelmingly true[1].
> "...80% of the surveyed evangelicals believe that the modern rebirth of Israel and the return of millions of Jews to that land are a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and show 'we are getting closer to the return of Jesus Christ.'[1]
> more likely is that Christians feel a certain affinity towards Israel due to a shared Judeo-Christian heritage
This wouldn't really explain it.
Muslims also have a Judeo-Christian heritage (and even believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah), and there's no reason to believe the historical parts of Israel would be different if they were under Muslim control. After all, the Palestinians living there prior to Israel's formation preserved all that stuff for hundreds of years.
1. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/25/753720351/as-u-s-jews-cool-to...
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#63The world is full of these "conflict" spillovers into civilian life in europe right now. Palastinians vs Israelis (or Jews in general), Kurds vs Turks, Shiits vs Sunnits, Wahabi vs all, Thai Royalists vs Students, CCP controlled student chapters vs those with no family ties to the mainland. Also the remnants of old war and warcrimes, being used in these show up time and time again. Todays japanese are dragged for the WW2 crimes through the mud by some old geezers.
The ideals have decayed, another great game is in full swing and these stories of the past, are great to prevent any discussion of the present and to feel selfrightous while comitting similar crimes on a smaller scale. Nobody is really interested in preventing these atrocities, a ton of people are interested in keeping them alive as ammonition.
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zionism is an anti-democratic, explicitly racist belief that only Jews should have governing power over all land west of the jordan river.
Don't the Palestinians think the same thing, that only Palestinians should have governing power over all land west of the jordan river?
I'm sure many want the land that their families lost long ago when Israel was established and plenty of Palestinians are enraged enough by the ongoing human rights abuses that they suffer that they'll curse the Israeli state. Some will even say some pretty radical shit about it, probably similar to what Ukrainians might say of the invading Russians, or even what some Irish said of the Brits back during their independence struggle.
However if you were to right now offer the people of Palestine a guaranteed peace with a two-state solution based on the Oslo accords they would overwhelmingly vote to accept it. I don't think you could say the same of anyone who describes themselves as a Zionist. Though I don't know how widespread that belief is among the Israeli population, it's entirely likely a similar majority in Israel would be satisfied with such a solution.
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What's infinitely more likely is that Christians feel a certain affinity towards Israel due to a shared Judeo-Christian heritage. What's really infinitely more likely is that israel and usa share some common enemies, and usa doesn't really have all that many geopolitical allies in the region to chose from. I don't know why everyone reaches for weird religious conspiracies when the obvious geopolitical explanation w…
Maybe it's because that the religion is one of the most important factors which formed these alliances and adversaries throughout the history. Without these cultural and religious layers, what remains is same for everyone. A human body.
Sure, you are correct.
But that also means Jews/Christians have a very rocky road together. Technically, "Christians" performed the Holocaust, for starters.
It begs a question - when you add in Islam, why do Christians and Jews suddenly become political allies?
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
I grew up in an Evangelical church and I attend a Protestant church now (although not American) and the only place I've ever heard people claim that my fellow congregants believe that about Israel is online from people outside the church. I'm sure you'll be able to find _someone_ who believes it, but it is so weird to see people claiming something as a fact about your church that you've never encountered in nearly 40…
Whilst I've definitely got the impression, that _most_ people think of it as a shared heritage, I have now and then had a few people quoting the same prophecy from Zechariah as their reasoning. > And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it - Zechariah 12:…
Possibly closer to the mark in terms of scripture is Ezekiel 38, which specifies that the Jews are to have returned/gathered from exile/dispersion and be living in peace ("unwalled cities") before an invasion/looting from the north. Of course, it only specifies the movement of peoples, not the political configuration of the land.
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand how you came to the conclusion that Israelis are being attacked in this instance.
Refusing to build a data center in Israel, as Koren wanted.
That's the state of Israel, not Israelis. You can refuse to open a factory in China for moral reasons, but still be perfectly friendly with your chinese colleagues
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> 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. I remember reading Bill Clinton's biography. At some point, he mentioned that a pastor told him something along these lines, and that it was an important realisation for him. (I read that years ago, could be slightly wr…
> I found that extremely disturbing that archaic religious beliefs would influence foreign policies
Why? As a former atheist, I’ve come to the realization that the alternative—at least at scale—to traditional religion isn’t people being hyper rational engineers. It’s different and less well established unprovable and illogical beliefs. Have you read some of the social “science” stuff that gets published? All the “woo” stuff? People believe that stuff and it gets executed into policy. (The reasons for the atheism being former are unrelated to that observation, my point is just that I get where your initial take is coming from.)
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#69I appreciate this is not quite the same thing, but i can't help but wonder what someone who finds survelience morally reprehensible, is doing at a company that is primarily in the business of tracking users.
They found the treatment of Palestine by Israel to be the morally reprehensible thing -- not specifically data collection itself but weaponized data for enacting a system of oppression.
The data collected by Google on everyone is used by the US government as a weapon to enact a system of oppression, otherwise they wouldn’t use warrantless PRISM/FAA702 to pull data from the servers and would instead use normal legal search warrants based on probable cause.
Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract
#70> “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…
Israel deserves to exist as much as any other country