MindTheTech, a well-funded conference in Midtown focused on supporting the Israeli tech industry, was disrupted by pro-Palestine protesters on Monday morning, who were promptly forced out of the event. Moments after I tweeted videos of the disruptions, I was also kicked out without explanation.
It’s nice to see at least a few engineers have a moral compass and a spine. There seems to be a culture among engineers that you only build, not ask yourself questions about the morality and ethics of what you’re building.
Being one step removed from the consequences doesn’t absolve a person of their culpability, especially when they are the ones who are necessary to actually make that project into a reality. No one has the power they have regarding tech.
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department, " says Wernher von Braun.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, also delivered remarks. He criticized the UN member nations for not unanimously supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza
“That is what the UN has become, a weapon in the hands of jihadists,” Erdan said. He added that one third of the UN member nations are “Muslim countries,” eliciting murmurs from the audience.
It’s becoming clearer to people around the world just how crazy Israel’s claim is that if you don’t support their wholesale slaughter of civilians you must support terrorism. What it’s doing in Gaza is harming global perceptions of Israel.
About a minute later, another protester interrupted. I learned later that her name was Ilana, and that she’s an organizer with the anti-Zionist Israeli group Shoresh and Jewish Voices for Peace.
“Google is complicit in genocide!” she shouted. Moments later, a nearby woman shoved Ilana and she hit the ground.
“Go support terrorism somewhere else!” one man yelled, as two security guards pulled her out. The crowd applauded for Regev.
And there it is again. Are these people really such crude thinkers that they can only imagine either wholehearted support for Israel in everything it does, or wholehearted support for terrorism? Can they really not imagine that there’s any other position a person might reasonably hold? Or do they just say this because it works for them rhetorically?
