Staff in the Dublin office of Wix were told the Israeli software company was addressing “non-work” related content posted in internal discussions, after employees were encouraged to support Israel’s “narrative” in its conflict with Hamas.
Messages in an internal company discussion, first reported by The Irish Times in recent days, encouraged employees to “show Westernity” in social media posts backing Israel, as “unlike the Gazans, we look and live like Europeans or Americans”.
The messages were posted in an internal Slack channel called “supporting-Israel-narrative”, set up in response to Hamas’s October 7th attacks in southern Israel, which killed 1,400 people and sparked the current conflict.
The channel invited employees to “join a company initiative to create videos and creative campaigns”, to “support Israel’s narrative”.
Israel-Hizbullah close to ceasefire deal, says Israel’s envoy to Washington
One of the casualties of 12 months of war in the Middle East was the rule of international law
Israel orders any remaining residents of Gaza’s Beit Hanoun to leave
Gaza: Israel detains 240 Palestinians including medics after hospital raid
One post advised staff to avoid focusing on numbers when posting about attacks on Israelis, as “the number of deaths and bombings in Gaza will be significantly higher”.
Wix, who provide a platform for people to build websites, has had an office in Ireland since 2018.
It is understood the internal messages caused significant unease among a number of the 500 employees working in the company’s Dublin office this week.
In an email on Friday, Sara Smith, head of the Dublin office, said Wix had removed “any non-work content” from its Slack channels, other than messages of support for Israeli colleagues.
“We’re working actively on additional steps to ensure that going forward this type of content doesn’t end up in work channels & if it does, for it to be proactively removed,” she wrote.
“We really appreciate all of the feedback we have received and will do our best to continue addressing it,” she said.
The company did not respond to requests for comment on the internal correspondence to staff.
In a recent Slack post a manager announced the company wide “supporting-Israel-narrative” channel was being shut down.
At the start of the week Wix dismissed one of its Irish employees, Courtney Carey (26), after she publicly criticised Israel.
In posts on LinkedIn, Ms Carey described Israel as a “terrorist state” and criticised the “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza.
Ms Carey, from Clondalkin, southwest Dublin, later added that she condemned “all forms of terrorism” and did not support Hamas.
Following backlash to her comments from colleagues and customers, Wix fired Ms Carey.
In a statement, Nir Zohar, Wix president and chief operations officer, said her comments had been “unfathomable, unexplainable and unacceptable”.
The company’s decision to sack Ms Carey was criticised by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, as well as People Before Profit and Solidarity.
In an email to staff on Wednesday, Mr Zohar said the “Israel and Palestine topic” would be “more explosive than ever” for the foreseeable future. “The past three weeks were incredibly hard for many of us, with overwhelming emotions of fear, sadness and anger,” he said. “We believe in free speech, and we won’t try to limit anyone’s political views, within limitations of hate speech, racism or calls for violence.”
The senior executive asked colleagues to keep “official Wix communication channels” for work purposes only.
While he said it was acceptable for staff to have different opinions, it was “not ok to be rude, cruel or violent towards each other”.
“If someone posts something you find offensive you can ask them directly to remove it, respectfully explain your point of view, or take it up with your manager or HR”, Mr Zohar wrote.
On Friday a number of activists from the group Dublin for Gaza and People Before Profit held a protest outside Wix’s Dublin office, over the company’s decision to fire Ms Carey.
