Apple has reportedly shut down internal Slack channels used by Muslim and Jewish employees after workers posted verses of the Koran and organized protests in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, according to a report.
Management at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company — whose CEO Tim Cook has been unusually quiet since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks — decided to shutter the Slack channels after removing posts related to the war, according to leaked messages obtained by Insider.
“We have a very important update to share with you today. We saw and heard your feedback,” a person identified by Insider as a “leader of Apple’s Muslim employee resource group” wrote in a message to users of the Muslim Slack channel.
“We’ve collectively decided that the only sustainable path forward is to briefly pause the Apple Muslim Slack channel,” the Muslim Slack channel users were told.
“The Apple Jewish Slack channel will do the same.”
The Insider report claimed that Apple’s management removed posts that included verses from the Islamic holy book as well as “certain words that are said by international organizations.”
Employees who posted on the Muslim Slack channel also reportedly attempted to organize protests.
Apple has reportedly shuttered internal Slack messaging channels used by Jewish and Muslim employees to sound off on the Israel-Hamas war. REUTERSThe Muslim resource group leader added that the move was done to “ensure a respectful environment for our communities during a painful and tragic time.”
“We know this comes at a time in which we need community more than ever,” the leader wrote.
Separately, a pro-Israel watchdog demanded that Apple fire a software engineer who posted a message on his LinkedIn page refusing to condemn Hamas.
Apple told The Post that the person in question, however, is a contractor who no longer works for the company and has no business with the iPhone maker.
How celebrities, schools, and businesses have reacted to Hamas’ terror attack against Israel
Mohammad Tami, a senior software engineer who lives in the Palestinian city of Ramallah on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, identifies himself on LinkedIn as a senior software engineer for Apple.
He took to LinkedIn on Wednesday and condemned “the ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by Israel.”
“I cannot condemn my people for resisting this brutal and inhuman regime,” Tami wrote on LinkedIn, adding that the Palestinians “have the right to strive for self-determination and the return of our people to the land from which they were forcibly displaced 75 years ago.”
Mohammad Tami, a senior software engineer who lives in the Palestinian city of Ramallah on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, took to LinkedIn on Wednesday and condemned “the ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by Israel.” LinkedIn/Mohammad Tami
The LinkedIn post prompted calls for Apple to fire Tami, who is based in the Palestinian town of Ramallah.
Tami wrote that the “struggle will persist until all refugees are able to return to their homeland” in present-day Israel “between river and sea…until this oppressive system is dismantled.”
A Twitter handle that goes by the name “StopAntisemitism,” which unearthed Tami’s LinkedIn post and which is funded by the pro-Israel real estate investor Adam Milstein, demanded that Apple fire Tami.
“This is a lot of mental gymnastics for ‘I support Hamas murdering 1300+ Israelis, beheading babies, raping teens, and shooting the elderly point blank in the head’,” the Twitter account of “StopAntisemitism” wrote.
The Post has sought comment from Tami.
In the week following the attack, Apple CEO Cook was conspicuously silent while his tech peers put out statements condemning Hamas.
Apple employees reportedly used the Slack channels to quote verses from the Koran and to organize protests. APMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemned the Oct. 7 attacks as “pure evil” while Google CEO Sundar Pichai proclaimed his “stand against antisemitism.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on X called the attacks on Israel “shocking and painful.”
Insider later reported that Cook sent a company-wide email on Oct. 9 which read: “Like so many of you, I am devastated by the horrific attacks in Israel and the tragic reports coming out of the region.”
“My heart goes out to the victims, those who have lost loved ones, and all of the innocent people who are suffering as a result of this violence,” Cook wrote.
The Israel-Hamas war has inflamed passions globally in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. APSilicon Valley companies have been grappling with how best to deal with simmering tensions in the workplace in light of the unfolding events in the Middle East.
In the days and weeks after Hamas’ surprise terrorist assault on Israeli towns on Oct. 7, Microsoft shut down an internal discussion board after one employee wrote about a “strong sense of disillusionment with our work and the company” in light of “one-sided statements” by management in support of Israel.
The internal messages at Microsoft were first obtained by Insider.
Three days after the Hamas assault, Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s head of human resources, circulated a note to company employees.
“I am profoundly saddened by the horrific terrorist attacks in Israel this weekend and the atrocities we continue to watch unfold,” Hogan wrote, adding that “we condemn this hatred and brutality.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said that the “terrorist attack by Hamas…has to be condemned in the strongest possible ways.”
