Imagine handing out $400 gift cards to your employees and accidentally letting them spend it on a group tied to mass murderers. That’s what Google just did — and yes, they’re calling it charity.
In a move that could only be described as “generous meets clueless,” Google offered each of its 180,000 employees a $400 charitable donation to spend through its corporate giving platform, Benevity. That sounds nice—until you realize one of the approved organizations is none other than UNRWA, the United Nations agency whose staff has been credibly accused of actually *participating* in Hamas’s barbaric October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
So let’s do the math: 180,000 employees, $400 each. That’s a potential $72 million in donations. And some of that money could end up in the hands of a group linked to a terrorist massacre. Tell me again how tech companies are the moral leaders of our time.
And before the fact-checkers hyperventilate, yes, Google has supported Israeli charities too. They’ve encouraged giving to emergency responders like Magen David Adom and United Hatzalah. Great. But that’s like giving a fire extinguisher to one neighbor and a can of gasoline to the arsonist next door.
Israeli employees inside Google weren’t silent. They quickly flagged UNRWA’s inclusion in internal chat channels. Apparently, some people at Google still have functioning moral compasses, even if the top brass is too busy virtue-signaling to notice the red flags waving in their own backyard.
Now, let’s talk about UNRWA for a second. This isn’t some squeaky-clean humanitarian operation. It’s the same agency that Israel’s government just booted out of eastern Jerusalem. Why? Because intelligence and investigations revealed that several of its staff were actively involved in the Hamas invasion that left over 1,200 Israelis dead and hundreds kidnapped or tortured. That’s not a smear — that’s a fact backed by evidence.
But Google’s defense? “These organizations must regularly demonstrate their compliance with the program’s eligibility criteria.” Translation: “Don’t blame us, blame the algorithm.” Because nothing says accountability like outsourcing your ethics to a third-party tech vendor.
You have to wonder what kind of criteria Benevity is using. If “employs terrorists” doesn’t disqualify you, what does? Not enough TikTok followers?
Meanwhile, the Knesset isn’t playing around. Israel passed two laws last month to restrict and shut down UNRWA’s reach in Jerusalem. Because when your staff is caught helping terrorists, you don’t get a slap on the wrist—you get the door.
Google, however, is still playing the “neutral platform” game — the same game that got Facebook in trouble, that let YouTube become a breeding ground for extremism, and that every Silicon Valley giant leans on to avoid making actual moral choices. Spoiler alert: neutrality in the face of evil isn’t noble. It’s cowardly.
This isn’t about charity. It’s about power. Google wants to keep its image squeaky clean while appeasing every side of every issue. But in doing so, it risks funding both the fire department and the arsonists. That’s not neutrality. That’s insanity.
So the next time Big Tech talks about “values” and “responsibility,” maybe ask them which side of the war they’re really on. Because giving terrorists a tip jar isn’t just bad optics — it’s a dangerous game.
And if they’re willing to look the other way for this, what else are they quietly funding?