{"id":116405,"date":"2024-10-19T17:00:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=116405"},"modified":"2024-10-19T09:22:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T07:22:31","slug":"19-00-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=116405","title":{"rendered":"Author Slams Amazon for Canceling Talk to Jewish Employees, Having Anti-Israel Rapper Macklemore Address Staffers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Author Slams Amazon for Canceling Talk to Jewish Employees, Having Anti-Israel Rapper Macklemore Address Staffers<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The Amazon logo is seen at the Young Entrepreneurs fair in Paris, France, Feb. 7, 2018. Photo: REUTERS\/Charles Platiau<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon has come under fire for a second time this week, and the most recent controversy involves a Jewish activist who accused the e-commerce giant of having a \u201cbig, giant Jewish problem\u201d for allegedly canceling her talk to company employees but allowing anti-Israel rapper Macklemore to address staffers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Best-selling author and renowned speaker Samantha Ettus revealed in an Instagram\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday that she was invited by Amazon a few months ago to speak to an unofficial group of Jewish employees at the company. However, her talk was eventually canceled because the human resources department at Amazon decided she was \u201ctoo controversial,\u201d said the Harvard graduate and former\u00a0TED Talk speaker.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A few months later, Ettus explained, Amazon invited Macklemore to speak to employees, reportedly at an official seminar for Amazon employees who are suffering from addiction or in recovery, in honor of September being National Recovery Month.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cHind\u2019s Hall\u201d singer has publicly spoken about his alcohol and drug addiction, but has also publicly accused Israel numerous times of committing a \u201cgenocide\u201d of Palestinians during the Jewish state\u2019s ongoing war with Hamas terrorists, which began after last year\u2019s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. Hamas-led terrorists murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and took over 250 hostages, including Amazon employee\u00a0Alexander Trufanov, who remains in captivity<\/a>. Amazon has so far not publicly commented on Trufanov\u2019s kidnapping.<\/span><\/p>\n

Macklemore accused Israel of \u201cgenocide\u201d when he performed at a \u201cPalestine Will Live Forever\u201d\u00a0benefit concert<\/a>\u00a0last month, which took place just weeks after his pre-taped, Zoom seminar for Amazon employees, according to the\u00a0New York Post<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cDespite the Jewish people\u2019s pleas that this is an antisemite, you can\u2019t have him speak, the employees are up in arms, [Macklemore] is allowed to speak,\u201d Ettus said in her Instagram video. \u201cSo Macklemore is not controversial but I am \u2026 Amazon, you have a huge Jewish problem. What are you going to do about it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An Amazon spokesperson responded to Ettus\u2019s accusations on Wednesday in a statement to\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these assertions lack important context, and it\u2019s inaccurate and misleading to suggest we tolerate hostility in our workplace,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWe realize this has been a difficult time for many, and we remain focused on supporting all of our employees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ettus shared the news the same week that\u00a0Amazon executive<\/a>\u00a0Dr. Ruba Borno appeared in a promotional video for the company wearing a pendant in the shape of Israel that had a Palestinian flag imposed on top. Amazon has since deleted the video but not before the company faced backlash from social media users, who called the video \u201cdisappointing and insulting\u201d to Jews, threatened to cancel their Prime subscriptions, and called for Borno\u2019s firing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ettus has a Substack called \u201cThe Jewsletter\u201d and launched a campaign called New Voices, in which non-Jewish and Jewish celebrities and influencers, including Cindy Crawford and Kevin Nealon, draw awareness to antisemitism. Ettus also co-produced the documentary \u201cPrimal Fear: Jews Under Siege.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She claimed in her Instagram video on Tuesday that Jewish employees at Amazon have been denied the right to form their own employee resource group, also known as an affinity group, even though the company has\u00a013 such groups already<\/a>, including ones representing Asians, women, military veterans, people with disabilities, Latinos, indigenous workers, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Amazon \u201crefuses to officially acknowledge\u201d Jews and allow them to create an affinity group for themselves because the company believes Jews are \u201ca religion [and] not an ethnicity,\u201d Ettus claimed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author Slams Amazon for Canceling Talk to Jewish Employees, Having Anti-Israel Rapper Macklemore Address Staffers Shiryn Ghermezian The Amazon logo is seen at the Young Entrepreneurs fair in Paris, France, Feb. 7, 2018. Photo: REUTERS\/Charles Platiau Amazon has come under fire for a second time this week, and the most recent controversy involves a Jewish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116405"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116443,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116405\/revisions\/116443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}