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Amazon Suspends Palestinian Engineer After Internal Protest of Israel Cloud Contract

The paid suspension follows an internal letter urging Amazon to quit the Israel-linked Project Nimbus contract.

Overview

  • Ahmed Shahrour, a software engineer in Amazon’s Whole Foods division in Seattle, was suspended with pay "until further notice" after posting on internal Slack channels criticizing the company’s ties to Israel.
  • He wrote to executives including CEO Andy Jassy urging Amazon to drop Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint cloud deal with Google launched in 2021 to provide services to the Israeli government.
  • As part of the investigation, Amazon revoked his access to company email and tools and removed his Slack posts, according to Shahrour.
  • Amazon did not address his case specifically and said it investigates reports of discrimination, harassment or threatening behavior and takes appropriate action based on its findings.
  • Shahrour alleges the company has silenced pro-Palestinian voices through selective moderation and prior discipline, and the case parallels recent worker terminations over Israel-related protests at Microsoft and Google.