More than 40 tech founders, investors, engineers and others are announcing today a coalition called Technology for Palestine build open source projectstools and data to help others in the industry advocate for the Palestinian people.
The group’s launch comes at a tense time in the region. Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in death more than 1,100 people. The ensuing war in the Gaza Strip has displaced millions of Palestinians and tens of thousands of deaths.
The Israel-Hamas war has proven divisive in the tech industry. Home to a well-known tech and startup market, Israel has seen strong support from tech individuals and institutions. Instead, calls for a ceasefire and a pro-Palestine speech have caused some to lose their jobs.
Paul Biggar, the founder of Tech for Palestine, hopes to raise awareness of the war in Gaza, fight for a permanent ceasefire and provide ways for those afraid to speak out publicly in support of Palestine to continue to provide support. It is one of the first tech initiatives to take a public stance in support of Palestine and could be 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 ceasefire.
Biggar, the founder of the company CircleCI — last worth $1.7 billion — formed the coalition afterwards writing a viral blog post that criticized the tech industry’s lack of support for the Palestinians. He said that after he wrote his blog post, thousands of people contacted him with words of support, many of them afraid to speak out for fear of possible career repercussions.
Among them, he said, were “dozens of people who were not only speaking out, but had started projects to change the industry to ensure that people speaking out about Palestine could be heard. Dozens more volunteered to help,” added Biggar. “I started connecting these people together and the [Tech for Palestine] The community came together very quickly.”
The platform, still in its early days, will feature projects run by small teams and serve as a place to share resources and advice, something many pro-Palestinian tech workers already do privately. It has already secured names like Idris Mokhtarzada, founder of unicorn Truebill, to help build the platform. So far, he’s created a badge for engineers on GitHub to use calling for a cease-fire, and created HTML snippets for use on their websites to post a cease-fire support banner.
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 growing tech industry.
Arfah Farooq, founder of Muslim Makers, said the past three months have changed everyone in many ways. At the same time, there was a camaraderie and activism that has never been seen before. “I’ve seen firsthand people coming together to work for Palestine with nothing but their laptops from all over the world,” he said.
He decided to partner with Tech for Palestine after reading Biggar’s viral blog post and has already started sharing resources on how to support Palestine. “Because of the siege, we can’t go to Gaza and help on the ground, but we help no matter where we are in the world,” Farouk said.
One engineer, who asked to remain anonymous, decided to join the coalition because that person felt suffocated at work. That person has agreed to work as an engineer and product manager to help generate resources for Tech for Palestine, saying, “I hope this initiative will spark significant change and give people their voice back.”
A former tech brand marketer, who is also afraid to speak publicly for fear of it affecting a new job search, also told TechCrunch he’s glad to have a way to get involved with the cause.
“That period was incredibly isolating for Arabs, Muslims and other people of color in VC and tech,” he said. “Tech for Palestine is a necessary initiative. When we see the mobilization around the world and the USA in numbers of hundreds of thousands asking for peace and [the] dehumanization of the Palestinians, the tech community can no longer remain silent.”
The Tech for Palestine initiative comes as the death toll among Palestinians continues to rise. In recent weeks, US officials have reportedly pushed Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, even as they have called for US support for Israel’s security unwavering.
Biggar hopes, at the very least, that this new coalition will herald a larger shift in people speaking up.
“The narrative has just changed,” he said. “We are working to enable many more who feel silenced to speak, we are just getting started.”
