File - Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and founder of Web Summit, speaks at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon on Nov. 1, 2021. The fallout from the Israel-Hamas war has spilled into workplaces everywhere, as top leaders of prominent companies weigh in with their views and workers complain of their own voices not being heard. Backlash has been swift, including to a tweet from Cosgrave suggesting that Israel was committing war crimes.
“I'll never attend/sponsor/speak at any of your events again," former Facebook executive David Marcus stated on X, formerly known as Twitter. The international law firm Winston & Strawn rescinded a job offer to a New York University student who wrote a message in the Student Bar Association bulletin saying Israel was entirely to blame for the bloodshed.
Isra Abuhasna, a data scientist in the Chicago area, was among several professionals who expressed similar thoughts on social media, saying in a LinkedIn post that she was “risking her entire career” by expressing her views on the conflict. Starbucks filed a lawsuit to stop Starbucks Workers United from using its name and a similar logo. Workers United, the parent union of Starbucks Workers United, responded with its own lawsuit saying Starbucks defamed the union by implying it supports terrorism. It wants to continue using the company name.
As the humanitarian catastrophe deepened in Gaza, more company leaders addressed the situation, including Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, who said the company was splitting a $3 million donation between the Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services and the Palestinian Red Crescent.Allison Grinberg-Funes, who is Jewish, wrote in a LinkedIn post that she was disappointed by the failure of her colleagues to reach out immediately after the Hamas attacks.