More than 40 founders, investors, engineers and other tech industry players today announce a coalition called technology for Palestine to build open source projectstools and data to help others in the industry defend the Palestinian people.
The group's launch comes at a tense time in the region. The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel led to the death of more than 1,100 people. The ensuing war in the Gaza Strip has displaced millions of Palestinians and tens of thousands of deaths.
The war between Israel and Hamas has proven divisive for the tech industry. Israel, home to a well-known technology and startup market, has received strong support from technology people and institutions. On the contrary, calls for a ceasefire and to speak out in support of Palestine have caused some lose their jobs.
Paul Biggar, founder of tech for Palestine, hopes to raise more awareness about the war in Gaza, fight for a permanent ceasefire, and provide ways for those who are afraid to speak out. tech-a-time-of-fear-and-a-culture-of-silence”>in public in support of Palestine to continue offering support. It is one of the first tech initiatives to take a public stance in support of Palestine and could represent a turning point in the venture industry's stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict as more people seek to speak out in favor of a Stop the fire.
Biggar, the founder of the company CircleCI – latest valued at 1.7 billion dollars – formed the coalition after writing a viral blog publication that criticizes the lack of support that the tech industry has shown to the Palestinians, even as the death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas continues to rise. He said that after writing his blog post, thousands of people reached out to him with words of support, many of them afraid to speak out for fear of possible impacts on his career.
Among them, he said, were “dozens of people who were not only speaking out, but had initiated projects to change the industry and ensure that people speaking for Palestine could be heard. Dozens more people volunteered to help,” Biggar added. “I started connecting these people and the (tech for Palestine) community came together very quickly.”
The platform, still in its infancy, will include projects run by small groups and serve as a place to share resources and advice, something many pro-Palestinian tech workers are already doing privately. He has already roped in names like Idris Mokhtarzada, founder of unicorn Truebill, to help build the platform. So far, he has created a badge for engineers to use on GitHub that calls for a ceasefire and has created HTML snippets for people to use on their websites to place a banner supporting the ceasefire.
Biggar said there are plans to eventually work more with Palestinian organizations and help Palestinian startups with mentoring and cloud credits. TechCrunch previously reported that the war has destroyed much of Palestine's thriving tech industry.
Arfah Farooq, founder of Muslim Makers, said the last three months have changed everyone in many ways. At the same time, there has been a togetherness and activism that he has never seen before. “I have seen firsthand people from all over the world come together to work for Palestine with nothing but their laptops,” he said.
She decided to work with tech for Palestine after reading Biggar's viral blog post and has already started sharing resources on how to support Palestine. “Due to the siege, we cannot go to Gaza and help on the ground, but we help no matter where in the world we are,” Farooq said.
One engineer, who asked to remain anonymous, decided to join the coalition because he felt suffocated at work. This person agreed to work as an engineer and product manager to help generate resources for tech for Palestine and said, “I hope this initiative will bring about meaningful change and give people a voice back.”
A former tech brand marketer, who is also afraid to speak publicly for fear it will affect his new job search, also told TechCrunch that he is happy to have a way to get involved with the cause.
“This period has been incredibly isolating for Arabs, Muslims and other people of color in venture capital and technology,” he said. “tech for Palestine is a necessary initiative. When we see mobilizations around the world and in the United States of hundreds of thousands of people calling for peace and (the) humanization of the Palestinians, the technology community can no longer remain silent.”
The technology for Palestine initiative comes as the death toll among Palestinians continues to rise. In recent weeks, US officials have reportedly urged Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, even as they have called for US support for Israeli security. unwavering.
Biggar hopes, at the very least, that this new coalition portends a greater change in the people speaking out.
“The narrative just changed,” he said. “We are working to allow many more who feel silenced to speak, but we are only getting started.”
