Amazon investigating antisemitism allegations in relation to comments on internal Arabs@Amazon group

Amazon is investigating allegations of antisemitism among some of its workers following comments made on an affinity group on a company-wide chatroom.

The investigation began after other staff members flagged up the comments on the Arabs@Amazon group. These allegedly included comments that Israel was behind threats to Jewish schools, and posts that appeared to deny that Hamas was responsible for rape and sexual violence during the 7th October 2023 massacre. There were also posts claiming that Western media was “controlled” by the Israeli Government.

The messages were posted between December 2023 and July 2024 on an internal social media channel on the Slack instant messaging platform. The Arabs@Amazon group is one of a number of “affinity” groups set up to foster diversity and inclusion, according to a company spokesperson.

The posts can be seen across the multinational company. Most of the alleged posts are understood to be from office-based staff, rather than warehouse employees and include software engineers. At least three of the users who posted the content are based in the UK.

Much of the discussion in the group appeared to be prompted by the Hamas-Israel war.

In one post on the channel, an employee appeared to deny that Hamas was a terrorist organisation and noted “the fine treatment” of the “Israeli civilian hostages” by Hamas.

Another user dismissed “mass rape on Oct 7” as “Israeli atrocity propaganda, like 40 beheaded babies.”

Amazon employs more than 1,000 people at its offices in Israel located in Tel Aviv and Haifa and there are understood to be thousands of Jewish employees at Amazon offices across the world.

The allegations follow previous complaints by Jewish staff at Amazon about antisemitism from colleagues since the 7th October massacre. In December, Amazon suspended an employee who inserted a note that read “Death to Zionists” inside a copy of a book on Israel that was shipped to a customer.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “We don’t tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind in the workplace.”

The spokesperson added: “We investigate any such conduct that’s reported and take action – up to and including termination – against any employee who is found to have violated our policies.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism throughout the United States.