‘Progressive except for Palestine’: how a tech charity imploded over a statement on Gaza

The board of the non-profit Code for Science & Society blocked a statement against genocide. The fallout tore the high-profile organization apart

Miliaku Nwabueze, a senior program manager at Code for Science & Society, had been concerned for some time about the role of technology in state violence. Then, on 7 October of last year, Hamas entered Israel, killing and kidnapping about 1,400 people. Less than a week later, as Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians out of northern Gaza in the onset of its deadly retaliation, Nwabueze decided to write a message to her colleagues on the US-based non-profit organization's Slack channel.

Hey y'all ... I have been watching multiple genocides around the world," she began, naming Palestine as well as Sudan, the Congo and Artsakh. All of these have heavy linkages to the tech industry." The 30-year-old went on to assert that CS&S - whose stated mission is to advance the power of data to improve the social and economic lives of all people" - should say, at the minimum, we support demands for a ceasefire" in Gaza.