A Palestinian American software engineer is suing Meta for wrongful termination and discrimination, claiming the tech giant fired him in retaliation for his pro-Palestinian speech and expression. In a lawsuit filed in California, Ferras Hamad accuses Meta of a “callus, chronic, and consistent anti-Palestinian bias” and claims he was “scrutinized, interrogated, and terminated because he was of Palestinian national origin and/or Muslim investigating a SEV,” company jargon for “severe issue” related to content posted by Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian photojournalist posting from the ground in Gaza. In response, the company said, “The employee was dismissed for violating Meta’s data access policies, which we make clear to employees will result in immediate termination.” But Hamad claims Meta fired him specifically because they believed he personally knew Azaiza, whose content Hamad discovered was misclassified by Meta. “To suggest that Mr. Hamad knows him simply because they are both Palestinian — when they have no personal connection whatsoever — is emblematic of Meta’s biases,” one of Hamad’s lawyers told The Washington Post.
