Tech for Palestine

Press Release: https://techforpalestine.org/press-release

"we don’t have the right to show humanity towards Palestinians without being silenced or cancelled" - venture backed tech founder, in personal message to me

Tech For Palestine (Twitter, Github) is a collection of over 40 tech founders, engineers, marketers, community builders, and investors, working towards ending tech's support for Israel's war on the Palestinian people across Gaza and the West Bank, and working towards a free Palestine.

In December, I wrote "I Can't Sleep" about how tech investors and leaders are whitewashing the genocide in Gaza (since then, South Africa has invoked the Genocide Convention). I was inundated with messages from founders, tech workers, and even investors who were worried about the genocide they could clearly see, and the tech industry that was whitewashing it. My experience resonated strongly. They also spoke about the fear, of being unable to speak up.

Many of these tech folks were working on solutions. They were starting advocacy campaigns, building websites and datasets so that we can see how our actions fund war, and holding the pro-Israel investors accountable. These folks have coalesced into Tech For Palestine.

Our goal is to change tech. Today, folks like Shaun Maguire at Sequoia, Tal Broda at OpenAI, and Matt Ocko at DCVC can keep representing their firms despite saying things nobody should say about another person. At the same time, an organized movement works to cancel tech workers and leaders who speak up against the genocide.

However, this is changing. People are speaking up – in the past few months we have seen many in tech speak up, including Paddy Cosgrave, Paul Graham, Andrew Dudum, Albert Wenger, Joe Damato, Sidra Qasim, Amir Nathoo, and me.

Tech for Palestine is a semi-anonymous collaboration. It's just a group of tech people working on projects. Those projects work to shift the narrative, and to allow tech workers who are against the genocide – and that's a lot of them, after all, who wouldn't be against a genocide – to speak up.

We're launching with four projects, and I'll write about one each day this week, about why we think they are important and how you can help:

• a continually updated list of VCs who continue to support Israel's campaign against the people of Gaza, supporting Israel even after they razed Northern Gaza, driving 1.7m people from their homes and into starvation, and killing over 30,000 civilians. This list has been requested by both founders and LPs, including pension funds, GCC funds, and funds-of-funds, to avoid investing in VCs such as Sequoia, who have partners actively supporting the unfolding genocide.
• a github shield/badge for engineers to support a ceasefire
• a html snippet for founders and others to add to your website or blog calling for a ceasefire
• a website and accompanying dataset listing Israeli tech companies, and their MENA and international alternatives, so tech workers can stop supporting the economy of war.

You can find out more by signing up on our website, or following our Twitter. Volunteers and those who want to get involved should check out our GitHub, and join our Discord.