The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on Amazon to lift its suspension of a software engineer who protested the company’s work with the genocidal Israeli government.
SEE: Amazon suspends engineer who protested company’s work with Israeli government – CNBC
That Amazon employee reportedly spoke out during an internal meeting, objecting to the company’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, which includes the military and other security agencies. The engineer was later placed on administrative leave, a move widely viewed as retaliatory and suppressive of free speech and conscience.
In response, Washington, D.C., based CAIR said:
“No one should be punished for speaking out against genocide. Amazon’s suspension of this engineer sends a chilling message to employees and consumers alike: that the company is willing to silence moral conscience in order to protect lucrative contracts with a government carrying out war crimes, slaughter of civilians, mass destruction, ethnic cleansing, and forced starvation.
“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 also called on other tech companies with similar contracts to respect employee activism and protect freedom of expression within the workplace, particularly when it concerns partnerships with regimes accused of crimes against humanity.
Today, CAIR called Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) an “accomplice in genocide” after he was caught on video denying the existence of the Israeli-manufactured famine in Gaza and falsely claiming that “Palestine is a made up fiction.”
Yesterday, CAIR said that comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s recent claim that the racist Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is somehow “better than” the growing worldwide campaign for a “Free Palestine” is part of the efforts of those supporting Israel’s genocide to dehumanize the Palestinian people and those who support their call for freedom and justice.
Earlier this week, CAIR called for the removal of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) from Gaza after an investigation by the BBC revealed that a biker gang with a history of violent anti-Muslim rhetoric is in charge of the foundation’s security.
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CONTACT: Katie Walker, Communications Director at CAIR-WA, kwalker@cair.com; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com