Shereena Qazi
There is an unspoken rule in the tech industry in the United States — a red line that, if crossed, might affect one’s career forever.
This boundary has nothing to do with coding or algorithms; it is about a subject that even the most outspoken of Silicon Valley techies hesitate to bring up: Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians in besieged Gaza.
But one dissenting voice has rang out through the silence of the tech industry, speaking out against Israel’s brutal bombardment and ground offensive in the besieged enclave that have killed more than 20,000 people – most of them women and children.
Through scathing blog posts and social media updates, New York-based tech innovator Paul Biggar has raised a serious issue: How the silence of the tech industry is encouraging Israel to continue its atrocity on helpless Palestinian civilians.
“I think the thing that’s important going forward for the tech industry is that they need to realise that Palestinians are people and that there are indeed two sides to this conflict,” he tells TRT World in an exclusive interview.
“And by having this purely, and just purely pro-Israel thing, they’re fueling the violence,” said Biggar, founder and CEO of Darklang, a company focused on simplifying the process of building scalable applications.
He first articulated his anguish in a searing blog post titled ‘I can’t sleep‘, which resonated with many people globally.
Having spoken publicly about misogyny and techies’ efforts to circumvent COVID-19 vaccine eligibility requirements, Paul used his platform to express how difficult it was for him to continue his day-to-day activities as images of dead children in Gaza kept flashing before his eyes.
“The inhumanity of the soldiers is unbearable. They shoot civilians in the street, imprison and torture children, and strip and humiliate innocent men,” he said in the post.
“But the soldiers are having fun. They’re posting to TikTok, doing some war crimes, then celebrating on the beach. I hate them. I hate them.”
The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with half of the coastal territory’s buildings damaged or destroyed and nearly two million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.
About a week after Biggar published his blog, he was removed from the board of directors of CircleCI, a continuous integration and delivery platform tech company he founded.
“In the blog post, I wrote, there were 51 references (sourcing) to almost every sentence, and certainly every sentence that had even a touch of controversy was well supported. And the reason I did that is because anyone who speaks up is immediately criticised,” Biggar tells TRT World.
“It was a very one-sided blog post. And of course, it was one-sided because there’s only one side to having bombs dropped on civilians and their houses and being forced to evacuate”.
Start from scratch
In a striking contrast to his picturesque surroundings in the beautiful town of Aix en Provence, Biggar’s thoughts were immersed in Gaza.
“I really could not sleep,” he says.
Biggar’s blog post wasn’t a result of impulsive emotions. Before October 7, he did not know much of the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. So, he started from the basics.
“Seeing that deflection just made me very angry. So I went into research mode,” Biggar tells TRT World.
“I read the word Nakba for the first time in October. And the more I learnt about the history, the more I felt like I was getting affected by investors speaking up for Israel, so I wrote the first draft of ‘I can’t sleep’.”
In response to the post, Biggar received a massive outpouring of feelings and messages that were overwhelmingly positive.
“Anyone who learns about Palestine ends up on ‘team Palestine’,” he adds.
Floodgates of realisation
Since the Israel bombardment began in Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, several reports revealed the heightened coordination among pro-Israel forces in Silicon Valley and the global tech sector.
Independent journalist Jack Poulson revealed in an article ‘Inside the pro-Israel information war’, that a WhatsApp group titled the ‘J-Ventures Global Kibbutz Group’ exists, comprising pro-Israel investors, tech executives, activists, and even a senior Israeli government official to defend Israel’s image in media, academia, and business.
The messages obtained from the group unveil strategies such as hounding Israel’s critics on social media, terminating pro-Palestine employees, and attempting to ship military-grade equipment to the Israeli army.
In October, Paddy Cosgrave, the chief executive of Web Summit, stepped down after several Big Tech companies withdrew from the company’s upcoming annual technology conference over his condemnation of Israel’s bombardment of hospitals and civilian-heavy areas in Gaza.
“War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies and should be called out for what they are,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.
And Silicon Valley luminary and Y Combinator founder Paul Graham has been accused of anti-Semitism after his tweet on November 4 on the Israeli war on Gaza.
“A grim month: 31 Israeli and at least 3600 Palestinian children have been killed since October 7,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He found himself facing criticism from Israeli tech professionals who accused him of taking a seemingly pro-Palestinian stance.
“Both their criticisms were coordinated in this group (WhatsApp group). It made everyone realise that actually it’s a coordinated attack, which is an extension of the Israeli army, who are coordinating with this group, in order to deliberately shut them down,” Biggar says.
“So my blog post kind of reflects on the reality that everyone is starting to realise that they were being manipulated a lot, so they’re now asking questions.”
Many people have reached out to Biggar after his article, expressing their apprehension about speaking up on certain matters. Some admit to ongoing fear of reprisal, yet a glimmer of courage emerges as they witness others breaking their silence.
“People who are saying, I was afraid to speak up. I’m still afraid to speak up, but a little less afraid as a couple of people have told me that now they’re going to speak up because they’ve seen other people speak up,” Biggar says.
The prevailing sentiment suggests a slight shift in the tech industry’s stance, which historically has been notably pro-Israel and deeply intertwined with the Israeli tech scene, Biggar says.
In the end, he also asks some crucial questions about the aftermath of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“What happens after this? Are Israelis going to feel safer? Is the tech industry in Israel going to be improved?” His assessment was clear—no, it’s not.
According to him, these actions only contribute to worsening the situation. He believes that as the tech industry aligns itself with the cause of peace, the US gains more leverage to support peace and exert pressure on Netanyahu’s government or whoever comes after to rectify the situation.
It highlighted his perspective on the interconnectedness of technology, peace, and political influence.
“It’s very easy for people to say Hamas is bad, right? You know, you’re not going to find anyone really to dispute that,” Biggar said.
“But there are about five million Palestinians in Palestine who are human beings with dreams and aspirations and goals, and they are not part of the violence.”
C-TRT World
