Activist and tech entrepreneur Paul Biggar has announced yesterday the launch of a new coalition called Tech for Palestine, bringing together over 40 founders, investors, engineers and others in the tech industry, to work on collaborative open-source projects in support for Palestine.
The coalition is currently home to four projects, including a list of “VCs that support Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza”, and a website called Boycottech, calling to boycott Israeli tech companies, and providing a list of MENA and non-MENA based alternatives to these companies.
The formation of the coalition is motivated by the mounting pressure that tech workers face when speaking up about Palestine. The press release reads: “”Stop bombing kids” shouldn’t be a controversial statement. And it certainly shouldn’t cost people their jobs. Yet, this is the reality tech workers are facing when they oppose Israel’s war on the people of Gaza.”
Since the public launch of the coalition yesterday, the Discord server dedicated for Tech for Palestine has been flooded with hundreds of volunteers and contributors, reaching over 700 members and counting. Volunteers are self-organizing in channels dedicated for research, software, content and else, and are proposing new open-source projects and initiatives to feed into the coalition.
