"Employee Backlash Over Blacklist Spread... US Companies Struggle with Pressure to Take Sides on Israel-Palestine"

American companies are facing pressure to take sides in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, while employees who have expressed personal opinions are being pressured by opposing groups, escalating conflicts within the U.S. business community over the current situation.

On the 22nd (local time), The Washington Post (WP) reported that a list containing the names of hundreds of 'anti-Israel employees' was recently posted on social media.

The list included names of employees from major companies such as Deloitte, Amazon, Microsoft, and McKinsey who expressed support for Palestine, as well as employees from foreign startups. The list categorized employees who posted messages that seemed to simply express sympathy regarding the situation as 'potential supporters of terrorism.'

A Google employee posted a video on the job platform LinkedIn singing a song mourning Palestinian colleagues and innocent children who lost their lives due to Israeli bombings. A few days later, she discovered that her name, workplace, and LinkedIn post had been posted on a website created by a software engineer in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her LinkedIn post received a comment stating, "Your support for terrorism is being monitored and recorded," which was later deleted.

Companies whose CEOs have issued public statements supporting Israel are reportedly also facing pressure to take similar stances regarding Palestinian victims.

WP reported that there is backlash within major IT companies such as Amazon, Meta, and Google, which conduct extensive business with Israel and employ thousands of local staff.

Some Google employees have expressed disappointment that Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, only issued messages mourning Israeli victims and did not comment on Palestinian victims.

Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, sent an email offering condolences to employees working in Israel but did not send emails to Palestinian employees working in the U.S. and other countries, which sparked backlash from Arab employee groups.

Such pressure is being applied not only to IT companies but also to franchise businesses. When McDonald’s provided free food to the Israeli military at a store in Israel, it faced strong backlash from the Arab world. In response, McDonald’s Malaysia branch issued a statement that its owner is '100% Muslim' and made donations for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, American technology, finance, science, and energy companies that have maintained close business ties with Israel have not hesitated to publicly support Israel, WP reported.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.