In pursuit for peace: Our leaders need to embrace nuance
Stand with values, not flags. An urgent call for ceasefire.
Since the horrendous Oct 7th terrorist attacks by Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians, hundreds of venture capital firms and corporate CEOs, including many of whom are investors in my company and dear friends, have shared public messages of unequivocal support in standing with the state of Israel. As a CEO, and a Palestinian-American with roots and family in the West Bank and Gaza, I believe these statements as leaders have fallen short.
For decades leaders and visionaries within the venture and startup community have set the guideposts for where the world is heading, taking the role as progressive futurists often transcending technology innovation to set the tone for what we believe is possible in this world. The words of our community’s leaders and the confidence with which they are spoken and shared reverberate through the country, and even around the world, with strength and influence.
Now, a month past the October 7th attack, we find ourselves in a world where Israel has killed an estimated 10,000 Palestinians with over 4,000 innocent children in a military response that nearly all international experts decry as violations of international law and human rights. And the messages of unequivocal support for Israel are still sitting on our corporate pages — untouched nor updated. The sheer strength and volume of those initial messages are now creating a deafening silence in the wake of the magnitude of horrors and loss of innocent life unfolding in Gaza.
I know that we as a venture and startup community are capable of a world where nuance is required. We take risks to build companies and invest billions of dollars across burgeoning industries that few understand. We pride ourselves on seeing things differently, and accepting those differences. To be contrarians, and to be successful in that approach, our jobs require ruthless diligence, fact-finding, and hard work. And most of the time we are great at it. And yet, over the last few weeks in a time of a global thirst for clarity and perspective, we’ve taken stances that have failed by exceptional magnitudes.
As a father whose children are both the descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled the Nakba in 1948, and the descendants of Holocaust survivors from Poland, I have a deep consideration for nuance in my life. My Thanksgiving table requires it.
While it is difficult to resist the temptation for simplistic narratives, as leaders with global platforms it is imperative that we struggle through the nuance and ultimately communicate the values that are core to our organizations, employees, and shareholders. This requires proactively dismantling the overly simplistic perspective that there are two sides to every issue and acknowledge that multiple truths do exist. And in the case of Israel and Palestine, the difficulty is not in identifying those truths, but in holding multiple truths together, simultaneously. At the core of holding multiple truths is the dismantling of false binaries.
Most critical for our community of venture and startup leaders is to actively dismantle and publicly condone the false narrative that criticizing Israel’s collective punishment of over 2 million people is in some form or another either antisemitic or the condoning of Hamas terrorist attacks. It is categorically inaccurate. We as leaders have a responsibility to make space for nuance out of respect for the global influence we have, and for the protection of our employees and community who are speaking out.
As the CEO of a public company, responsible for my global employees, brand, and shareholders, my perspective holds the nuance and truths of what is happening today — I stand with values, not flags. I can commit to consistently supporting my company’s values under all circumstances. They do not change or bend in different seasons. They are not influenced by the perpetrator or cause.
Our values are based on the respect for human dignity and life. The belief that all lives are equally valued and need to be protected and prioritized. That all children should be safe and housed. That all peoples should have access to clean water, food, medical care and basic necessities under all circumstances. That everyone, in all parts of the world should have equal rights regardless of their color or creed in the land that they call home. And that freedom of movement and education be accessible to all.
It is upon those values that I believe all leaders and CEOs should use their platform today to call for an immediate cease fire. To actively recognize Israel’s right to defense and also recognize the means and manner in which they are responding violates international law. I ask us to find nuance, and share our voice today to help save innocent lives.
It is within nuance where truth exists. For Palestinians and Israelis to find a lasting peace, a vision for the future that is based on shared values will be required. As an industry that dreams up, invests-in and builds the future, I believe our community of founders, investors and executives can help paint this future as well. To do so, requires us to move past the ease of a simple narrative, to grapple with the delicacy of nuance. We must fight publicly against false binaries to ultimately find and spread the truth.
