Amazon fires worker over rule violations amid Gaza protest
Tech giant says it “doesn’t tolerate harassment or threatening behavior of any kind.”
Amazon has defended its decision to fire a software engineer who was suspended last month after posting critical comments about the company’s business with Israel, saying the move followed an internal investigation that found policy violations.
Ahmed Shahrour, a software engineer in Amazon’s Whole Foods division in Seattle, was informed of his dismissal by email on Monday. According to Amazon, the decision was based on breaches of its conduct and communication policies, not on his political views.
The company said Shahrour “misused company resources” by posting “numerous non-work-related messages pertaining to the Israel-Palestine conflict” on internal Slack channels, a violation of workplace standards designed to maintain a professional environment.
“Amazon does not tolerate discrimination, harassment or threatening behavior or language of any kind in our workplace,” company spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement. “When any conduct of that nature is reported, we investigate and take appropriate action based on our findings.”
Shahrour, who was suspended in September, had publicly opposed Amazon’s $1.2 billion cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government and military, known as Project Nimbus. The contract involves Amazon and Google providing artificial intelligence tools and cloud infrastructure to Israel.
Shahrour and a group of employee supporters claim his firing was retaliatory, describing it as an effort “to silence dissent from Palestinian voices within Amazon.” In a statement to CNBC, Shahrour said the dismissal was “a blatant act of retaliation designed to shield Amazon’s collaboration in the genocide from internal scrutiny.”
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Amazon rejected that characterization, emphasizing that its decision followed a formal process and was based solely on conduct violations, not political expression.
Amazon’s move follows similar disciplinary actions across the technology industry as companies seek to balance open debate with professional standards in the workplace.
Microsoft fired two employees in August who staged a protest inside company offices, while a long-time Microsoft engineer resigned last week citing moral objections to the company’s Israeli contracts. Google terminated 28 employees in April for violating company policy during anti-Nimbus demonstrations.
Amazon, for its part, has maintained that its cloud services are provided “wherever customers are located” and declined to comment on specific contracts.
