Amazon fires employee who protested company's ties to Israeli govt

By Matt Day

 

Amazon.com Inc. has terminated an employee who protested the e-commerce giant’s ties to the Israeli government. 

 

Ahmed Shahrour, a 29-year-old Palestinian engineer, was fired on Monday for violations of company policy, including statements intended to “threaten, intimidate, coerce or interfere with” senior leaders and colleagues, according to an email seen by Bloomberg. 

 

Shahrour, who worked for the retailer’s Whole Foods Market unit, was suspended last month after he posted a series of messages to corporate Slack chat rooms criticizing Amazon’s connections to Israel. He subsequently protested and handed out fliers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters campus.

 

“We don’t tolerate discrimination, harassment, or threatening behavior or language of any kind in our workplace, and when any conduct of that nature is reported, we investigate it and take appropriate action based on our findings,” Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in an emailed statement. 

 

Amazon, along with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, provides cloud-computing services to Israeli government and military entities, under an umbrella contract called Project Nimbus. Both companies have been targets of protests by critics of Israel’s conduct during its war in Gaza, which killed thousands before a ceasefire took effect on Monday. 

 

“Amazon is not a neutral observer,” Shahrour said in a note to his colleagues last month. “We are active participants.”

 

Shahrour was also among a group of seven current and former tech workers who occupied Microsoft President Brad Smith’s office in August as part of weeks of protest targeting that company for its sales to Israel. Shahrour and his fellow protesters were arrested and released.  

 

After an investigation spurred by news reports in the Guardian and other outlets, Microsoft subsequently disabled the use of some of its software by an Israeli military unit.