Amazon Suspends Palestinian Engineer For Protesting Contract With Israeli Government

Amazon has suspended a Palestinian software engineer after he publicly opposed the company's ties with the Israeli government through internal channels. He criticised the tech giant's cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, known as Project Nimbus, Arab News reported.

Ahmed Shahrour, who works for Amazon's Whole Foods business in Seattle, was suspended with pay until further notice after his internal posts and a letter addressed to CEO Andy Jassy lambasted the company's partnership with Israel. 

He alleged that Project Nimbus, launched in 2021, in collaboration with Google, provides the Israeli government with artificial intelligence (AI), data centres and other facilities. 

Soon after, Amazon sent Shahrour, who joined three years ago, a notice stating, "It has come to Amazon's attention that a post you made in multiple internal company Slack channels may violate multiple policies," according to CNBC. 

His access to company systems has since been revoked, and several of his messages have been deleted from Slack posts.

Shahrour, in a blog post on Medium, wrote, "Every day I write code at Whole Foods, I remember my brothers and sisters in Gaza being starved by Israel's man-made blockade. I live in a state of constant dissonance: maintaining the tools that make this company profit, while my people are burned and starved with the help of that very profit. I am left with no choice but to resist directly."

He addressed Amazon executives working on Project Nimbus to cancel it, saying, "Do yourselves a favour and drop it."

He added, "We, the workers, outnumber you," warning that employees would force the company to end the contract if executives did not. Shahrour told his coworkers that they could either leave Amazon or join efforts to oppose Project Nimbus, and he urged them to meet him outside the office during lunch to learn more and pick up flyers.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser, in a statement, said, "We don't tolerate discrimination, harassment, or threatening behaviour 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," reported Geekwire.

After his suspension, Shahrour told CNBC, "It feels like I can't voice anything, and if I do, I'm going to get a warning."

Project Nimbus, valued at around $1.2 billion, provides the Israeli government with cloud services, data storage, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning tools. Critics say the technology could be used for military operations, surveillance, and enforcement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Shahrour's suspension comes a month after Microsoft fired two employees who participated in a protest inside the company's headquarters.