Amazon suspends engineer who protested company’s work with Israel

Amazon CNBC suspended a software engineer protesting the company’s work with the Israeli government.

Ahmed Shahrour, a Palestinian engineer in Seattle, who worked for Amazon’s Whole Foods business, reported that he was suspended until the next notification “after sending messages about Slack criticizing the company’s ties with Israel.

“Amazon’s representative of Human Resources CNBC in a message displayed by CNBC,” Amazon’s loose channel of more than one internal company, a post that you can violate more than one policy. ” The company said he was investigating the incident in the message.

In the early hours of Monday, Shahrour sent a message on several internal loose channels and sent a letter to Amazon executives, including CEO Andy Jassy, ​​a letter that detares his concerns.

Shahrour, Company Project Nimbus, Amazon and Google’s COST $ 1.2 billion cloud computing contract Started in 2021 To provide artificial intelligence tools, data centers and other infrastructure to the Israeli government.

Shahrour, who joined Amazon three years ago, said, “Every day I write code to Whole Foods, and I remember that my men and sisters in Gaza were opened by Israel’s human -made blockade.” He continued: “I live in the case of constant incompatibility: protecting the vehicles of this company, my people were burned and hungry with the help of this profit. I have no choice but to resist directly.”

The letter was previously reported by the independent journalist Kali Hays.

Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser, Shahrour’s situation did not specialize in particular.

“We do not tolerate any kind of discrimination, harassment or threatening behavior or language in our workplace, and when any behavior is reported, we investigate this and take appropriate measures according to our findings.”

The company did not answer questions about its studies with Israel or its policies to supervise its duties on the internal channels.

Technology employees in Amazon, Google– Microsoft– Palantir And other companies became more clear in their criticism of business relations with the Israeli army.

Microsoft expelled two employees who participated in a protest in the center of the company last month. In April 2024, Google terminated 28 employees after a series of protests against labor conditions and participation in the Nimbus Project. Technology companies have increased security at some conferences in recent months after an increase in protests.

Amazon did not accept beyond the Nimbus contract stating That it provides technology to customers “wherever it is”. Google told the Israeli government that it has “extremely sensitive, classified or not for military workloads” in general. Microsoft said last month that most of its work with the Israeli defense forces contained cyber security for the country and the company plans to ethically provide technology.

As part of the suspension, Amazon canceled Shahrour’s access to company E -Posta and his vehicles and removed loose broadcasts and said in an interview with CNBC. Shahrour said he did not specify which policies of Amazon’s duties violated.

The letter also claims that Amazon has taken steps to “silence” pro -Palestinian employees criticizing the war in Gaza. Amazon recently issued a warning to an engineer who recently shared an article about American doctors in Gaza and fired an employee who spoke against Israel on social media in France. CNBC confirmed an account with a person who knows the subject that wants to be named because of privacy.

The company deleted the tasks in Slack Channel, which discussed the conflict in Gaza, and said that the tasks on other channels that screamed Palestinians were not removed.

“It seems like I can’t express anything, and if I do, I will get a warning,” he said.

Earlier this year, Microsoft employees expressed the concern that the company prevented Outlook e -mails containing the words “Palestine”, “Gaza”, “Genocide”, “Apartheid” and “Iof Azure” in May.

A microsoft spokesman said the company has taken steps to try and reduce the e -mails sent to employees who have not chosen “employees.

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