Apple employees claim they’ve disciplined or fired for expressing support for Palestine people

Nearly 300 current and former Apple employees have published an open letter alleging that several retail and corporate employees of the company have been disciplined or “wrongfully terminated” for expressing support for Palestinian people through pins, bracelets, or keffiyeh, according to Wired.

The group, which calls itself Apples4Ceasefire, is planning a protest outside Apple’s retail store in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Saturday. In a podcast published last week with media outlet Palestine in America, the group alleges a Palestinian retail employee at that location was wrongly fired for wearing clothing and accessories showing support for Palestinian people. 

The Apples4Ceasefire letter wants Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives to acknowledge the many deaths in Gaza from Israel’s assault on the territory in response to the Hamas attacks of October 7. Cook sent an email to Apple employees two days after Hamas attacked expressing sympathy for those who died or were bereaved, the letter says. It adds that “after over 150 days of violence against innocent Palestinian lives, there has yet to be a message sent expressing the same kind of concern for them.”

Business Insider reported in November 2023 that Apple had moved to quell internal friction over the Israel-Hamas war, deleting Slack posts about the conflict and “pausing” Slack channels for Jewish and Muslim employees.

And in May 2021, Apple employees circulated an internal letter calling on Cook to put out a statement supporting the Palestinian people. Nearly 1,000 workers signed. The letter writers, who are part of the Apple Muslim Association, specifically asked the company to recognize that “millions of Palestinian people currently suffer under an illegal occupation.”