A woman has been fired from the Irish office of an Israeli tech company over social media posts where she described Israel as a “terrorist state” in recent days.
The employee, who had worked in the Dublin office of Wix for 4½ years, was fired on Monday, following backlash from Israeli colleagues to her comments on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Wix, an Israeli software company that provides a platform for people to build websites, employs about 500 people in its Dublin office.
Courtney Carey (26), from Clondalkin, southwest Dublin, was told that she was dismissed with immediate effect over her statements criticising Israel on social media.
In posts and comments on LinkedIn, Ms Carey had described Israel as a “terrorist state” and criticised the “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces.
Ms Carey wrote that Israel had “cut off food, water and electricity” to the Gaza Strip, as well as devastated infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. She said the “root cause of this violence is a Zionist ideology”, which “denies Palestinian identity”.
The employee later clarified that she condemned “all forms of terrorism” and did not support Hamas, whose attacks killing civilians in southern Israel on October 7th sparked the current conflict.
It is understood Wix decided to terminate Ms Carey’s employment following backlash to the comments from other employees and customers in recent days.
In a statement on Monday, company president Nir Zohar said Wix had “decided to part ways” with Ms Carey.
He said he had been “bombarded” with messages from Israeli employees and others criticising her social media posts.
Staff in Israel had “lost friends and family members” in the Hamas attacks and suffered “much pain and personal trauma”, he said.
“In the midst of this, for all the Israelis to be called terrorists by someone they perceive as a team-mate and a colleague is unfathomable, unexplainable and unacceptable,” he wrote.
Mr Zohar said the employee had been asked “to be sensitive” after an initial post, but later made further comments which pointed “a blaming finger at the victims of horrific terrorism”.
While he said Wix would “never try to limit anyone’s political views”, it had strong values when it came to “team spirit, partnership and friendship”.
Mr Zohar, who is also chief operations officer, said the comments had harmed “our Israeli team’s spirit” and threatened the “great connection” between its Dublin office and other Israeli colleagues.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms Carey said she feared her dismissal would “100 per cent” have a chilling effect, with other Wix staff feeling unable to publicly criticise Israel.
Ms Carey, who worked as a customer-care team lead, said she was “absolutely” considering taking an unfair dismissal case to the Workplace Relations Commission.
She said the online backlash she had received in recent days had included death threats and rape threats.
The Irish office of Wix, which is based in Grand Canal Dock and opened in 2018, had a turnover of €28 million in 2021, according to most recent financial accounts filed last year.
On Tuesday People Before Profit and Solidarity called on the Irish Congress of Trades Union (ICTU) to make a statement condemning the dismissal of Ms Carey.
The Dún Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said Ms Carey contacted his office on Monday and he had spoken to her on Tuesday morning.
“This is really shocking stuff,” said Mr Boyd-Barrett.
He said she was sacked because she “called out” the crimes of Israel against Palestinians.
“She was pointing to the fact that the origin of this current terrible escalation of violence was the Israeli occupation, the apartheid system, the siege of Gaza,” he said.
Mr Boyd-Barrett also said that Ms Carey has been subjected to an “absolute tirade of foul and filthy abuse on social media”.
Mick Barry, a TD for Cork North Central, said ICTU had a responsibility to speak out and make an issue of her sacking and defend the rights of workers to free speech.
“This is an extremely dangerous precedent. A woman has been fired from her job for speaking out against a brutal war. A worker being fired from their employment for expressing a political opinion can have a chilling effect on many thousands of workers in this country,” he said.
