Tech Giants Withdrawing from the Middle Eastern Tech Hub
Samsung Next, an innovation arm in Korean technology giant, has withdrawn its operations from Israel which indicates a dramatic decline in the economy of the tech hub of the Middle East.
As Samsung Next exits Israel, it joins the ranks of companies divesting from the country’s once-booming tech sector, a key driver of exports. Numerous US and Israeli tech firms have already pulled out. Investment in Israeli tech plummeted by 56% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
Corporate disengagement from Israel reflects a growing acknowledgment among global firms of two major risks:
(a) The Internet Court of Justice (ICJ) findings, suggesting potential genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza by Israel, pose significant legal risks for involvement.
(b) Israel’s economy has experienced a steady downturn, attributed to structural neoliberal issues, judiciary changes by the far-right government, and the escalating impact of Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS).
In July 2023, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid stated: “Israel is no longer the Start-Up Nation. It’s a nation in crisis. It’s a political, social & int’l crisis, but its effects will be economic. … Some of the [economic] damage caused recently will take years to repair.” But since the beginning of Israel’s #GazaGenocide, the BDS impact has grown drastically, almost in proportion to the rise in the savagery and depravity of Israel’s “factory of mass assassination” of Palestinians and its use of starvation as a weapon of war. Many firms in Israel’s hi-tech sector, particularly in cybersecurity, are “borne from the military.”
Samsung Next bid its goodbye to the Middle Eastern tech hub, let’s see what the future holds.
On the Other Hand
As some tech giants pull back from Israel, others face criticism for suppressing employee voices. Google recently terminated over two dozen employees for protesting against the company’s cloud computing deal with the Israeli government.
The employees were fired following an inquiry that revealed they had staged protests within Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. In Sunnyvale, they entered the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, as reported on X by the organizing group, No Tech For Apartheid.
A Google representative informed CNN on Thursday that the demonstrations “were part of an ongoing effort by various organizations and individuals who are not primarily employed” by the company.
“A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations. Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety,” the spokesperson added.
“We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed.”
Google and Amazon secured a $1.2 billion agreement to deliver cloud computing services to the Israeli government and military, dubbed Project Nimbus, as stated by No Tech For Apartheid, which vehemently criticized the firings.
At this point, one could say that Israel is multitasking — the ability to mess everything up simultaneously, including another nation and its economy.
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