Israeli startups grapple with war, failure as economy plunges: WSJ

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Wall Street Journal
11 Mar 2024 13:56
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The Wall Street Journal reports on how the Israeli economy has been crumbling as its tech sector is facing open-ended struggles specifically due to the Israeli war on Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks to students at the Technion, a technology school in Haifa, occupied Palestine, Thursday, November 18, 2010. (AP)

Tens of thousands of Israelis working in the occupation's technology sector have been struggling due to the Israeli war on Gaza as it has been weakening one of the major drivers of its economy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Over the past two decades, WSJ revealed, the Israeli tech sector has tripled the occupation's economic output, shifting "Tel Aviv" into a wealthy city that has normalized the wealthy life for Israeli settlers, from expensive cars, celebrity chef restaurants, and vacations across the world.

However, Israeli settlers' tech businesses have been stumbling due to the death, injury, and absence of staff because of the Israeli war on Gaza, it added.

Investors have to think once, twice, thrice...

According to The Wall Street Journal, the worry surpassed Israeli settlers reaching investors who have to study any investment in that field more carefully and doubtfully, especially amid the potential for an all-out war with Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.

This was indicated in a recent survey done by the Israeli occupation's government innovation authority, which revealed that half of Israeli startups will cease to have any cash in six months, with many dreadful of the absence of any future funding by investors.

A sinking industry, way before the war

The struggle is not war-born, as even before that, these startups have had a tough year amid an isolating campaign by the occupation's government to repair its judicial system, which had triggered the effect of a global slump in venture investing, the WSJ explained.

The WSJ referenced "Iron Nation", an emergency fund created by Israeli venture capitalists in November that was set to give cash to startups battling to raise money, specifically $20 million, to aid roughly 30 startups. Back then, more than 700 companies in desperate need of cash applied for the fund.

Even though big Israeli tech firms that have a huge percentage of their staff abroad with their products in US and European markets have managed to overstep the hurdles triggered by the war, the Israeli occupation is at a huge risk as an entire generation of upcoming big companies will be ceased if technology startups fail, the WSJ stressed.

Not everyone is willing to be complicit in genocide

Over 600 staff members at Google have signed a letter demanding Google marketing to drop its sponsorship of the annual conference promoting the Israeli tech industry called Mind the Tech in New York last week, as reported and seen by WIRED on March 5.

“Please withdraw from Mind the Tech, issue an apology, and stand with Googlers and customers who are despairing over the overwhelming loss of life in Gaza; we need Google to do better,” read the letter on the event, which aims to highlight the Israeli tech industry.

At the conference on March 4, a Google Cloud software engineer interrupted remarks by Barak Regev, Google "Israel" CEO, by saying that his work should not be used for surveillance and genocide against Palestinians.

Talking to Hell Gate anonymously, the engineer said, “I don't see any way forward to continue my engineering work without doing this,” adding, "I consider this a part of my engineering work, and I hope other engineers within Cloud see me do this, and I hope that it galvanizes them."

As per the conference website, Google was a “gold” sponsor of the event, even though the financial details were not provided.