“Palestinian technology”.. Initiative to end support for Israeli technology | Technology

More than 40 founders, investors, engineers and others in the tech industry have announced a new initiative called Tech for Palestine that aims to end Israel’s tech support for its war against the Palestinian people throughout Gaza and the West Bank, and work towards a free Palestine.

The initiative's owner, Paul Bigger, hopes to raise awareness of the war in Gaza, fight for a permanent ceasefire and provide a platform for those who are afraid to publicly support Palestine.

Biggar launched the initiative after writing blog It resonated with the tech industry, which criticized its lack of support for Palestinians.

“'Stop Bombing Children' shouldn't be controversial, and victim support certainly shouldn't cost people their jobs,” Bigger wrote in the blog post. “Yet, this is the reality tech workers face when they speak out against Israel's war against Israel. “The people of Gaza. “

Big says Press release He posted the article on the initiative's website and blog: After publishing the blog post, he was contacted by thousands of people, many of whom were afraid to talk about themselves for fear of possible career repercussions.

The initiative is one of the first tech initiatives to take a public stance in support of Palestine, and could represent a turning point in the business community's stance on the conflict between Israel and Hamas as more people seek to publicly support a ceasefire.

Dozens of them have launched industry-changing projects to ensure those who speak on behalf of Palestine are heard, he noted, adding that dozens have volunteered to help.

Still in its early stages, the platform features projects run by small groups and serves as a place to share resources and advice, something many pro-Palestinian tech workers in particular do.

Raising a technical voice in support of Palestine

“Our goal is to transform technology,” Bigger said. “Today, people like Sequoia Capital’s Sean Maguire, OpenAI’s Tal Broda and DCVC’s Matt Oko can continue to represent Their company, despite saying some things that no one should say.” “They are seen as supporters of the Israeli genocide. At the same time, an organized movement within the tech industry is working to remove technology that speaks out against the genocide. workers and leaders.”

“However, that is changing,” he added, “and people are speaking out. Over the past few months, we’ve seen a lot of people in tech speaking out, including Paddy Cosgrave, Paul Graham, Andrew Dudum, Albert Wenger, Joe D’Amato, Sidra Qasim, Amir Natu and myself.”

Many people are helping to build this platform, such as Trueble founder Idris Mokhtarzadeh.

Currently, the platform has created “Palestinian Badges” calling for a ceasefire, in addition to “Palestinian Banners” that can place banners supporting a ceasefire on websites.

The initiative also has a project to boycott some venture capitalists who support Palestinian genocide.

The Anti-Palestinian Venture Capital Fund Project provides a continuously updated list of venture capitalists who support the extermination of Palestinians and a list of venture capitalists who support Palestinians.

The initiative has several projects in development, such as the “Technological Alternatives to Israel” project, according to the website.

Bigg said it plans to work extensively with Palestinian organizations to help Palestinian startups through mentorship and cloud credits.

Muslim Changemakers founder Arafa Farouk decided to get involved with the new initiative after reading Biggar's popular blog post and began posting resources on how to support Palestine.

“Due to the blockade, we are unable to travel to Gaza and provide assistance on the ground, although we will help wherever we are in the world,” Arafa said.

An engineer decided to join the initiative; because he felt suffocated at work. He agreed to serve as an engineer and product manager to help build resources for the Palestine Technology program.

A former tech brand marketer also spoke of her joy at having a way to get involved in the cause. “Tech for Palestine is a necessary initiative because when we see mobilizations around the world and the United States demanding peace and humanity for Palestinians, the tech community can no longer remain silent,” she said.

The Tech for Palestine initiative comes as the death toll among Palestinians continues to rise, and Bigger hopes the new initiative will help significantly increase the number of people speaking out.

One of the few tech efforts to support Palestine includes the No Apartheid Tech initiative, which calls for an end to Project Light Cloud, after Google and Amazon signed a $1.22 billion deal to provide the Israeli military and Government provides services and cloud technology.

Paul Biggar is an American computer engineer and Irish-born entrepreneur who founded Circle CI and serves as its CEO. He has also contributed to the Google TikTok project. He holds a PhD in scripting language analysis.