Amazon invited Controversial rapper and Palestinian supporter Macklemore to speak at an internal meeting, but reportedly vetoed a talk by a pro-Israel speaker – even as one of its activists is being held hostage in Gaza.
Samantha Ates, Harvard educated self help writer who have since taken up activism for Jewish causes October 7 Hamas massacrePosted a video on Instagram on Monday and accused Amazon “The big giant Jewish problem.”
Atas accused the e-commerce giant of canceling her Zoom appearance for an informal “affinity” group of Jewish employees because her talk was deemed “too controversial” by human resources.
In his Insta video, which has since gone viral, Attus expressed anger that the e-commerce giant banned drug addicts from organizing officially sanctioned seminars for the company’s affinity group dedicated to recovering drug addicts. Shut him up when he invited Macklemore for.
The “Thrift Shop” singer, who has been vocal about his alcohol and drug addictions, has been a harsh critic of Israel since its troops moved into Gaza to eliminate the terrorist organization, which it attacked during cross-border raids last year. 1,400 people were killed.
Hamas also took about 240 people hostage. Including Alexander “Sasha” TrupanovAn Amazon employee in its Tel Aviv laboratory. It is not known whether Trupanov is among the approximately 100 hostages believed to still be alive.
Last month, Macklemore, 41, staged a benefit concert titled “Palestine Will Live Forever”, where he shouted “F–k America” And Condemned Israel for “genocide” against Palestinians.
His concert was held just a few weeks after his seminar for Amazon employees. The Zoom session, which was pre-recorded and vetted by human resources personnel to ensure it did not delve into geopolitical matters, was cleared early last month and was shared with company employees. Permission was given to stream for.
“The Recovery@Affinity group hosted a conversation with Macklemore specifically on his personal journey, recovery, and reducing stigma in the workplace for those recovering from substance abuse,” the HR message reads.
HR said that “the team ensured that the conversation would follow the topics for conversation during National Recovery Month.”
HR told Jewish employees, “In reviewing the incident, we have decided to move this to a pre-taped conversation and will review all material before sharing it with employees.”
Attus recanted, saying that Amazon was guilty of “hypocrisy” for giving a platform to a “known racist and anti-Semite.”
“Despite the pleas of the Jewish people [that] It’s anti-Semitic and you can’t tell them to speak…they’re allowed to speak,” Atas said.
“So Macklemore is not controversial but I am,” she said.
Amazon spokesperson denied there was any double standards
“Many of these claims lack significant context, and are false and misleading to suggest that we tolerate hostility in our workplace,” the representative told The Post.
“We realize this has been a difficult time for many people, and we are focused on supporting all of our employees.”
According to Atas, Jewish employees at Amazon have been denied the right to form their own employee resource groups, or “affinity” groups, despite the fact that there are 13 such employee driven organizations Asians, Latinos, military veterans, LGBTQ, women and indigenous workers are represented.
“A few months ago, I was invited to speak at Amazon by their Jewish group, which is not a real Jewish group because Amazon refuses to accept them officially because they say they are a religion. [and] This is not ethnicity,” Atas said in the Instagram video, which had more than 10,200 likes as of Tuesday.
Atas told The Post on Tuesday that the Jewish employees filed an official complaint with human resources. He said Jewish employees had also filed complaints through the company’s ethics portal but their complaints were dismissed.
“I appreciate you bringing these concerns to our attention,” Amazon’s human resources department told the Jewish workers who protested. The text message from HR was obtained by The Post.
The conversation has since been removed from the company’s internal video portal.
Amazon management has previously come under fire from ordinary Jewish employees, who were angered by the company’s silence regarding Trupanov.
Amazon has not yet taken a public stance on Trupanov’s imprisonment, saying it is acting on the advice of defense and security experts. But Amazon’s Jewish employees have rallied to the company to speak out on Trupanov’s behalf.
The company also faced heat on one issue An internal company video featuring a Palestinian executive Ruba Borno was seen wearing a necklace with a pendant that featured a map of Israel and a Palestinian flag on it – Evoking the phrase “from the river to the sea”.
On Monday, Amazon said it had removed the video.
