Supporters of Palestine have called to boycott the payment platform Stripe after its CEO and co-founder Patrick Collison - an Irish-American billionaire who has advocated for Palestinians in the past - posted on social media on Wednesday about his run on the beach in Tel Aviv and how it was "great" to be back.
Many responded to his post on X by pointing out that he was only thirty minutes away from the Gaza Strip. Conservative estimates say nearly 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza and two million have been under constant Israeli aggression as they fight what UN experts have called "'deliberate starvation".
Some drew comparisons to the Academy Award-winning film, Zone of Interest, which depicts the everyday lives of Germans who lived next to the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War Two.
Alright, then they’ll just have to stop consuming a lot of things they buy online. Also they can’t buy from places that use Stripe terminals. I’d like to see an entire group of people get up from their lounges and buy grocery in person because their local home grown market with home delivery uses stripe checkout.
You're right, boycotting is difficult.
Boycots are not only for consumers. They can also be implemented by vendors. Stripe is a large company, but it has competitors.
Yeah, and as a company owner I now I have to invest good amounts of money to switch providers? Spend development resources, administrative resources and whatnot to make a switch because the guy made a tweet you don't like? And what do I do if the next providers's CEO does something you don't like?
Come on, this nonsense has to stop
Him visiting a beach in Israel isn't the same as him saying "kill all the Palestinians". This extreme knee jerk reaction is what has caused so much shit already, can we please PLEASE just stop it?
Reply with a tweet that maybe he is a bit insensitive, and please let it be done with that. This screeching isn't solving anything, it isn't helping Palestinians, it's just making life miserable for more people.
Just calm down
Yes stating you like visiting an Apartheid state while it is in the middle of a genocide is the same as saying 'kill all the Palestinians'
How else would you interpret someone saying "good to be back in Nazi Germany" at the height of the Holocaust.
You are not expected to participate in every boycott. If you cannot avoid using something you can keep using it. But if you do not care much about a certain brand and it is on the boycott list, consider using alternatives
Isn't it enough for you simply to not participate? What's your actual problem with other people doing it?
It’s almost like as if we’re all expected to participate and if we don’t. Then we’re just as bad as them apparently. Maybe you may not think the same, but I’ve seen plenty of examples IRL and on the web where not following the trending boycott gets you outcast. And it’s also sometimes like the only thing you might hear from the mindless echo chamber.
"You may protest and boycott but only in ways that don't impact me"
Thank you for stating it