Dublin woman fired by Israeli company after labelling Israel a "Terrorist state" on social media

Dublin woman Courtney Carey, was fired from her position at Wix, a website design company, after posting a series of posts on LinkedIn supporting Palestine and condemning Israel's actions in the recent Israel- Hamas conflict.

In a post labelled 'Saoirse don Phalaistín' on Linkedin, the 26-year-old Customer Care team leader, shared a video of her attending a pro Palestine protest in Dublin City.

In the post, Ms Carey described herself as "proud to be Irish, to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against the Israeli apartheid amongst over 25 thousand protestors".

The post was then edited two days ago in order to "make it abundantly clear that although some may interpret my support for Palestinians as an act of support for Hamas. This is absolutely not the case."

Casey continued to state: "I condemn all forms of terrorism regardless of the perpetrator or victim".

Courtney Casey had also shared numerous other posts expressing support for Palestine including a post by former Webb Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrove, where he said Israel did not have the 'right to break international law' in spite of 'the outrageous and disgusting acts' perpetrated by Hamas.

The LinkedIn post and series of tweets by Mr Cosgrave resulted in outrage from various different tech companies which led to Google and Meta pulling out of the 2023 Web Summit conference.

Mr Cosgrave resigned as Web Summit chief shortly after issuing the controversial comments one week ago.

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 published on LinkedIn 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.

Zohar continued to state that "Wix is a global company, it is an open and a liberal company. We would never try to limit anyone’s political views, we do however also hold a strong set of internal values about our team spirit, partnership and friendship."

"These accusations in such troubling times not only harm our Israeli team's spirit," he added.

Speaking to the Irish Times, Ms Carey 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. The company employe over 500 employees in Dublin.

Pro-Palestine protest in Dublin. Saturday 14th of October 2023. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Irish TDs have reacted to the news expressing shock.

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.

The TD added, that Ms Carey "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".

Mick Barry, a TD for Cork North Central, said Irish Congress Trade Unions had a responsibility to speak out and make an issue of Ms Carey's 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.