Amazon suspended Palestinian engineer Ahmed Shahrour after he opposed the firm’s aid to Israel, sparking debate over free speech and workplace rights.
This week, the US tech giant banned Ahmed Shahrour, a Palestinian software engineer located in Seattle, for penning letters criticizing the company's support of Israeli regime troops in their murderous assault against the Palestinian people.
On Monday, Shahrour was told that he would be suspended "until further notice" as the business looked into whether he had broken company policy by denouncing Amazon managers for their backing of the Israeli government.
"It has come to Amazon's attention that a post you made in multiple internal company Slack channels may violate multiple policies,"
an Amazon human resources representative wrote in a message.
Shahrour issued a letter outlining his concerns to Amazon leaders, including CEO Andy Jassy, and posted remarks on multiple internal Slack channels earlier Monday.
Shahrour replied in a written interview that Amazon had suspended him, removing his Slack posts and denying him access to work email and tools.
Shahrour urged the company to drop Project Nimbus, Amazon and Google's joint $1.2 billion cloud computing contract launched in 2021 to provide the Israeli government with artificial intelligence tools, data centers and other infrastructure.
"Every day I write code at Whole Foods, I remember my brothers and sisters in Gaza being starved by Israel's man-made blockade,"
Shahrour, who joined Amazon three years ago, wrote in the letter.
"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."
The letter also details actions taken by Amazon to "silence" pro-Palestinian staff members who have voiced opposition to the war against Gaza's citizens. According to Shahrour, Amazon recently dismissed a French employee for speaking out against Israel on social media and warned an engineer for sharing an article about American doctors volunteering in Gaza. A person with knowledge of the situation, who wished to remain anonymous for reasons of confidentiality, verified the story to CNBC.
According to Shahrour, the business has erased messages that mentioned the Gaza crisis in the "Arabs at Amazon" Slack channel, but it has left in place posts that denigrated Palestinians in other channels.
"It feels like I can't voice anything, and if I do, I'm going to get a warning,"
Shahrour added.
Employees and activists have been putting increasing pressure on US IT businesses to cease aiding the Israeli government in its ongoing genocide against the defenseless Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In response to an increase in protests in recent months, the companies have increased security at conferences.
Workers at Microsoft, Palantir, Amazon, Google, and other companies have been more vocal in their criticism of US companies that back the Israeli government.
Two workers who took part in a protest inside Microsoft's headquarters were let go in August. Last month, the business stated that cybersecurity accounted for the majority of its operations with the Israeli regime forces.
28 workers had their employment terminated by Google last year for demonstrating against the company's participation in Project Nimbus.
In related news, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, on Thursday called on Amazon to lift its suspension of the software engineer.
“We call on Amazon to immediately lift the suspension, issue a public apology, and affirm its commitment to protecting employees who speak out against injustice — especially when their concerns align with basic principles of human rights and international law,”
CAIR said.
“No one should be punished for speaking out against genocide."
What internal policies Amazon cites for disciplining employees?
Employees are expected to conduct themselves with the highest level of conduct, whether working on-site at Amazon or representing Amazon while off-duty and in social settings.
The disciplinary policy covers a wide range of unacceptable behaviors from unsatisfactory performance to serious misconduct, including gross misconduct which can result in summary dismissal with no notice given.
Amazon has a structured, reasonable and fair approach to disciplinary matters that includes investigations, intend claims and a right of appeal for the employee.
Examples of misconduct can include breach of company policies and procedures, disruptive or aggressive action towards others, a refusal to cooperate with an Amazon investigation or breach of ethics.