Do you have references for the “intimidated and threatened” bit? Is there a claim it went beyond a peaceful protest?
These protests don't happen in a vacuum. The entire purpose is to disrupt day to day work and make people take notice.
The issue is, imagine you disagree with these protesters. Do you feel comfortable saying "Actually, I support Israel because X, Y, and Z. This isn't really a genocide, blah blah blah." I think most people would not feel comfortable disagreeing with a small crowd loudly protesting.
Nor should you feel comfortable, in my view, expressing that opinion at work. That opinion might make other people with contrasting opinions feel uncomfortable. It might make them hate you. Work isn't about opining on politics or current affairs, it's about, in Google's case, slightly altering your login form or cancelling products. Employees at work should focus on their jobs, or privately talk with people they are comfortable around - not really a problem if two friends and coworkers have a small political debate over lunch, more of a problem if there is a conversation imposed on unwilling participants.
The issue is that some people violate this unspoken agreement and force their political fixations on everyone else.
First, let's acknowledge that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is a terrible strategy. There are plenty of conflicts out there at every scale where neither side has the moral highground.
It is entirely possible for both sides of a conflict to be complicit of crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.
In this particular case it is absolutely the cause of Iran (and most likely Hamas, though this one has a bit more nuance) to "wipe Israel off the map", and if they could snap their fingers and kill every jew on the planet, they would.
That doesn't make the force opposing them not themselves potentially culpable. We don't excuse the US firebombing hundreds of thousands of civilians in Tokyo, or the Soviet soldiers raping their way through Germany despite the horrors of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany.
ESPECIALLY if we deem one side our ally - they must be held to a higher standard than our enemy.
Second, the intent of crimes, and the success of crimes are independent. Being BAD at crimes doesn't make them not crimes. See: Trump, Donald.
Third, let's put this together. Israel is not bad Genocide. Israel is GOOD at Genocide because it knows that if it actually put all Palestinians into a Nazi-like concentration camp they would lose the support of the entire world. Which is why much as their other enemy Russia, they apply Salami Tactics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_slicing_tactics) to gradually erode the civil rights of palestenians (especially in the West Bank) by making their life more and more unpalatable and not care what ultimately happens to them (so long as they don't strike out back at Israel; and in some cases even if they do because that allows them to go in and dramatically overreact)
Remember, "Genocide" is not "Extermination of an entire ethnicity in a gas chamber", there are many sub-definitions of it. I'm not gonna get pedantic about it though. Israel is conducting a purposeful (via apathy/lack of care) massacre of Palestinian civilians under the guise of exterminating Hamas. That this is happening is not in dispute. The only thing that's in dispute among the mainstream is whether whether these costs to civilian lives are justified for the greater cause (much as people defend the WW2 concepts I mentioned above).
And if the entire context was "In October, Hamas struck out at Israel killing thousands of Jewish civilians, so now Hamas must be removed no matter what the cost", I could at least conceive of an intellectual argument of how many dead Palestinians is fair to take reprisal for dead Jews.
But that's not the start of this, and that's not the full context, and I hope at least everyone on hackernews reading this knows that.
It may be upsetting, or disruptive to work, or a firing offense, but per your description nobody was in danger.
people have a right to feel at ease in the workplace. if you think that your politics come before that, you aren't mature enough to work in a professional environment
Is the company supplying arms to Russia? Is the coworker the boss who lied about doing so? Have the Russians killed 15,000 children in 6 months with the aid of those weapons?
Let's keep these analogies somewhat accurate.
Where in my comment did I say anything about the company? GP was referring to making specific coworkers feel uncomfortable on the basis of ethnic identity
If you think your politics take precedence over having a workplace where people can be productive without feeling under threat, consider freelance work
If you disagree with your employer on such a fundamental level, maybe consider a different employer? If you leaving isn't enough to make them change their mind, what more will this degree of protesting accomplish?
Is there some evidence that this is a defense/military-related project despite Google's public denials that that is the case? Honest question, I have no idea.
Protest on your own time and let the rest of us do our jobs and go home to our families. This is no different than protesters blocking roads or airports. At best you get a few minutes of fame on the nightly news and at worst you end up alienating people who would otherwise be sympathetic to your cause.
The thing is, if you were a palestinian male you would likely be bombed in your home with your family once you got there. I'd be pretty pissed off about that too, and feel obliged to inform the people working on the system that killed you that they are doing some plainly evil shit.
I refer to this: https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/
Edit: The flagged of truth. :P
Maybe a relative of one of the ones whose bodies were mutilated and paraded around for all to see? You don't think that might touch a nerve?
Or on the opposite shoe: What if it were a bunch of Israeli employees who occupied that office demanding that google do MORE to support the war effort?
Leave your politics out of the workplace. This is not rocket science and the phenomenon we have nowadays where _everything_ must be co-opted for the political cause-du-jour is outright exhausting, even to people who support it.
I wouldn't even feel comfortable disclosing being Jewish to anyone in the workplace without getting chased down by a rabid mob chanting "free Palestine"
Nor am I obligated to qualify my own Jewishness by giving some opinion critical of the status quo
If you have difficulty coexisting with minorities in the workplace, that's your problem. We aren't obligated to put up with your shit
Here's what was asked:
> Do you have references for the “intimidated and threatened” bit? Is there a claim it went beyond a peaceful protest?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40087425
Look at this photo and tell me seriously you feel "threatened" by people sitting on the floor to protest a previously-thought-of-as-good company being a military contractor now:
https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,forma...
As a thought experiment, let's say they were protesting Google working for the French military. Or the US military. Or the South Korean military. Is the above a photo of an "intimidating and threatening" protest?
I feel you’re being deliberately obtuse on this.
You realize there are many examples of these sit-ins lately end with protesters gluing themselves to the floor/road or damaging property, maybe toss some paint on priceless art when it happens to a museum? Or relieving themselves in place so that some poor underpaid janitor has to clean up? After the protesters smile for the camera of course.
I find that pretty intimidating because if the spoiled rich brats looking for social media points are willing to do that to themselves what else are they willing to do? Is it totally unreasonable to assume one could be stupid and end up hitting someone? In the United State where gun crime is unfortunately high?
The likelihood of this particular incident developing into that was probably pretty low but the point is that other people should not have to make that kind of mental calculus at work. They have a right not to be subjected to whatever hot button political cause is in vogue when they’re trying to go to work so they can feed themselves and their family.
If you want to protest do it on your own time on public property or your own. Don’t expect sympathy from those of us that don’t want to hear it at our place of business.
Rather than get bogged in semantics, I'll settle for ethnic cleansing and argue from there: Israel has systematically displaced Palestinians with their own population for decades against international law. Israel has placed civilians in a conflict zone to occupy land.
This is not a controversial set of facts and I encourage you to follow it up. Israel is absolutely breaking international law: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/un-human-rig... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement
Israel has used civilians for military objectives in occupied land. The civilians comprise part of Israel's hostile, occupying force against the owners of the land, no?
The narrative that Hamas attacked simple peaceloving people and deserves to be crushed mercilessly is an oversimplification which ignores all context.
Despite insightful sounding statements like yours, there's nothing added to the conversation by saying 'its complicated'. You muddy the mud.