Senior Vice President of Web Services at Amazon, Dr Ruba Borno.Photo: algemeiner.
Dr Ruba Borno, Senior Vice President of Web Services at Amazon, became involved in a scandal after publishing a corporate video announcing an important conference scheduled for December in Las Vegas. The public attention was drawn to her pendant with a map of Israel, which instead of the Star of David featured a picture of the Palestinian flag. This gesture was perceived as support for the encrypted message “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free”, which calls for the destruction of the Israeli state and the genocide of Jews. This was reported by Israel’s Channel 9.
Dr Borno, who is a Palestinian refugee, said her family fled Kuwait in 1990, leaving behind all their possessions. She said they were given only three days to leave for the United States. Within a short time after the video was released, social media was flooded with angry comments. People began cancelling their Amazon subscriptions and urged others to do the same, demanding Borno’s release.
In response to the outcry, Amazon removed the video, saying it was “not meant to be a political statement”, but they decided to take it down. The company promised to publish new material in the near future.
This scandal was a continuation of another incident when Amazon failed to respond to the kidnapping of its employee, engineer Sasha Trufanov, by Hamas terrorists. On 7 October, terrorists killed his father and kidnapped his family. In late November, all family members except Sasha himself were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. However, the company did not make any statement in his defence, which caused even more discontent.
This situation calls into question the ethical standards of large corporations and their responsibility to society. In times of tension and conflict, it is important to be mindful of the influence that public figures can have on public opinion. The question arises: can large companies and their executives remain neutral on important social issues?
