Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls UN 'transparently antisemitic' after report on tech firms and Gaza

GOOGLE co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations “transparently antisemitic” on Saturday in an internal forum for employees, according to screenshots reviewed by The Washington Post and verified with a current member of the forum.

- THE WASHINGTON POST

His comments came in response to a UN report released last month that alleged technology firms including Google and its parent company Alphabet had profited from “the genocide carried out by Israel” in Gaza by providing cloud and AI technologies to the Israeli government and military.

“With all due respect, throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides. I would also be careful citing transparently antisemitic organizations like the UN in relation to these issues,” Brin wrote in a forum for staff at Google DeepMind, the company’s artificial intelligence division, where workers were debating the report, according to the screenshots.

The UN report was authored by its special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Italian legal scholar Francesca Albanese. The US representative to the UN has asked for her removal, accusing her of antisemitism and bias against Israel.

Critics of Israel have said its war in Gaza meets the definition of genocide, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected those claims, saying his country is defending itself against an attempted genocide by Hamas.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, has said the war has killed over 57 000 Palestinians.