Roughly 1,000 Apple employees have signed an internal letter imploring Tim Cook, the firm's CEO, to publicly condemn violence against Palestinians. The authors, who belong to the Apple Muslim Association (AMA), want the Cupertino firm to recognize that "millions of Palestinian people currently suffer under an illegal occupation."
The current violence in Israel and Gaza started after the Jerusalem District Court ordered six Palestinian families to leave their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on May 2 to make way for Jewish settlers. After 11 days of Israel's deadly bombing campaign in Gaza, at least 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, have been killed. 12 Israeli people, including two children, were killed by Hamas' missiles.
The members of AMA, which is an official employee group, stated that they were encouraged to write the internal letter due to Apple's failure in putting out a statement condemning violence against Palestinians. They wrote:
We are frustrated and disappointed because once more, many of those in positions of power and influence — who boldly stand for human rights in so many other just causes — either choose to remain silent or release ineffectually neutral “both sides” statements with regards to the Palestinian situation.
Additionally, the employees made the following request to Apple:
- That Apple makes clear, internally and externally, that we believe that Palestinian lives matter.
- That Apple makes clear that, as determined by the United Nations, millions of Palestinian people currently suffer under an illegal occupation. And that this fact has been reasserted through numerous international resolutions and supported by hundreds of nations.
- That apple makes clear that the above statement do NOT in any way take away from the human rights of our Jewish brothers and sisters worldwide.
- That Apple makes clear that the above statements do NOT in any way advocate or support terrorism of any kind upon any people, worldwide.
- That Apple DOES NOT make any statement referring to the Palestinian situation as a “conflict” “clash” or similar, as those words imply a power symmetry that simply does not exist.
- That Apple DOES NOT make any statement referring to “both sides” or similar, as doing so would feel to us as the equivalent of “all lives matter” — a minimization of the disproportionately larger pain and suffering of the Palestinian people.
- That Apple commit to spending equitable time and effort to learn about and engage with the Palestinian community, as we do for the many other diverse communities which make ip our company.
The letter was sent on Monday, and Cook hasn't formally responded yet.
Source: The Verge
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