Cisco, a Major Contributor to Israel's Military Technology, Fired a Pro-Palestine Employee
Cisco staff are outraged at the company's recent policy restricting internal debate on U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Story by Archit Mehta
On March 25, Francine Katsoudas, an executive at an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate, Cisco, announced new “guardrails” restricting internal discussions and debates on the Middle East—and specifically on Palestine. “Some topics are just simply too hard, too painful, too divisive, and they take our focus away from our ability to drive Cisco business, and one example specifically would be the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” Katsoudas said in a company-wide call. “We have made the decision that this topic cannot be discussed, cannot be debated in company or organization-wide meetings,” she added.
Cisco's Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer Francine Katsoudas announces new restrictions on employee speech regarding the Middle East on March 25, 2025. Video obtained by Drop Site.
Hours after the group call with Katsoudas, an employee who was outspoken on Palestine was fired. The reason given for termination, they described to Drop Site, was that their “comments contribute to a harmful work environment and harms other employees”—but that the company added it was not due to her “personal viewpoint.” They provided Drop Site with an HR email and notes corroborating their account, but requested anonymity to minimize risk to their future employment and general safety. A week later, Cisco deleted the largest pro-Palestine WebEx chat room, Bridge To Humanity (B2H), and its associated educational website. Cisco did not respond to a request for comment.
"The reason given for my firing is pure hypocrisy. They fired me for resisting the use of my tech labor to harm Palestinians and other marginalized communities,” the terminated employee told Drop Site News. “The level of dehumanization of Palestinians and Arabs in our workplace has become too much to bear," she added. Cisco did not respond to a detailed request for comment.
Cisco’s new policy and approach immediately sparked outrage among employees; at least 32 Cisco employees have lost 288 family members in Gaza since October 2023. Just six months ago, Brian Tippens, Cisco’s Chief Social Impact and Inclusion Officer, stated that the company aimed to avoid suppression of political speech altogether in an interview with WIRED.
Cisco, a U.S.-based multinational technology company, is known for designing and selling internet infrastructure technologies. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee and Who Profits Research Center have documented Cisco’s ties to Israel’s defense establishment and involvement in Israel’s illegal occupation.
In February, the Associated Press reported that Cisco is a crucial player in supporting the Israeli military’s technological infrastructure, providing server farms and data centers that form the backbone of its operations in the genocide in Gaza. Cisco’s systems are critical components of the Israeli military, including its AI-powered targeting systems that were first tested in 2021. While much attention has been focused on “Project Nimbus,” the $1.2 billion cloud computing deal involving Google and Amazon, Cisco’s role highlights how essential hardware and network infrastructure from U.S.-based firms also contribute to the military’s capabilities.
In a meeting last month, employees asked questions during the virtual all-hands meetings on Tuesdays called “Beats.” One question read: “How can Cisco possibly justify supplying technology to an army and government committing a live-streamed Genocide (even post ceasefire), killings, maimings, starvation, and mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of innocent people?”
Last year, employees who were part of B2H built WatermelonBot, a tool used to organize support for divestment from Israel among Cisco employees. The bot secured over 1,700 signatures, around 2% of Cisco employees, in June and July 2024 before the bot was terminated by the company. According to members of B2H, two out of four members who were involved in the project no longer work at the company.
After that, B2H sent an open letter to Cisco leadership urging the company to uphold its values of “acting with dignity, respect, fairness, and equity in our interactions with one another.” The letter demanded transparency regarding business dealings with the Israeli military and adherence to Cisco’s own policies and international law. The 30-page open letter previously linked on WatermelonBot, now available on BDS’s website, demanded that Cisco sever all business ties with Israel, arguing that the company’s partnerships enable human rights violations against Palestinians.
In December 2024, B2H members filed complaints with federal and California workplace agencies, alleging discrimination. The complaint from August 2024 provides several instances of anti-Palestinian racism from their internal chats. On November 30, 2023, for instance, one employee wrote, “Israeli passersby killed 2 members of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem this morning, and I for one, am extremely grateful.”
Several employees are concerned about being doxed by far-right Zionist extremist collectives like the Canary Mission. Christopher Ho, the director of the immigrants’ rights program at LAAW, is representing the employees. “The purpose of this case is not that of seeking divestment by Cisco,” he said. “Instead, this case is simply about vindicating the rights of employees to express their political views and commitments to political causes free from employer interference — particularly where those employees have been expressly urged to speak out on matters that bear directly upon their company’s business practices and values.”
“People are afraid to say what they feel and think. At this moment, this is an ongoing tragedy across numerous major tech companies.”
 | A guest post by
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In journalism, trust is everything. Over the past two months, I have been working on this story after Ryan Grim assigned it. I am grateful for a) the opportunity to work at DSN, b) employees at Cisco trusting DSN, and c) editors at DSN making sure the final product is ideal for our patrons who keep this incredible newsroom running. I hope to continue reporting on the genocidal big tech and other stories. If you are someone who works at big tech and has a scoop to share that can potentially end this genocide or other wars, please reach out via Signal at archit.01. And to everyone who read this story, thank you so much!
When I read stories like this, I always think about what society was like in Germany in the mid to late 30s, as authoritarian forces and ideas began to spread like a cancer. I always come away from those thoughts understanding the frailness of humans and their reluctance to accept “humanity” as a core principle of everyday life. Now I get to see it real-time. It never ends well.