Wix employee sacked over criticism of Israel files unfair dismissal claim

An Irish employee of Israeli tech company Wix who was sacked after calling Israel a “terrorist state”, has filed a claim seeking compensation for unfair dismissal to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

Courtney Carey (26), from Clondalkin, southwest Dublin, was told she was being dismissed with immediate effect over her statements criticising Israel on social media last October.

Ms Carey, who had worked in the Dublin office of Wix for four and a half years, was fired following backlash from Israeli colleagues over comments she made following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Wix, a software company that provides a platform for people to build websites, employs about 500 people in its Dublin office.

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In posts and comments on LinkedIn, Ms Carey had described Israel as a “terrorist state” and criticised the “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces.

Ms Carey wrote that Israel had “cut off food, water and electricity” to the Gaza Strip, as well as devastated infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. She said the “root cause of this violence is a Zionist ideology”, which “denies Palestinian identity”.

In a statement on social media, Wix president Nir Zohar said the company had “decided to part ways” with Ms Carey.

[ Internal Wix chat encouraged staff to support Israel’s ‘narrative’ in Hamas conflict ]

It is understood Wix decided internally to terminate Ms Carey’s employment following the backlash to her comments from other employees and customers.

Mr Zohar, who is also chief operations officer, said her comments had harmed “our Israeli team’s spirit” and threatened the “great connection” between its Dublin office and other Israeli colleagues.

His statement said Ms Carey had been asked “to be sensitive” after an initial social media post, but she later made further comments which pointed “a blaming finger at the victims of horrific terrorism”.

In an October 27th filing to the WRC, Ms Carey said she was seeking compensation due to her alleged unfair dismissal for “making negative comments about Israel”.

The claim stated she was fired “without due process and fair procedure” on foot of her comments. Wix did not respond to requests for comment on the WRC case.

Barry Crushell, a solicitor who specialises in employment law at Crushell & Co, is representing Ms Carey in the case.

Commenting on the filing, Mr Crushell said both he and Ms Carey were “looking forward” to securing an adjudication date at the WRC in the coming months. “In light of the very public manner in which her employment was terminated, we are exploring other legal avenues available,” he said.

Separately, internal messages show Wix staff worked to take down “pro-Hamas” websites in the days after the October 7th attacks, where Hamas militants crossed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 240 others hostage.

Messages from a company Slack messaging channel show these efforts included plans to screen for images such as “Palestinian flags”, which one post said could indicate a website had “potential” to be linked to Hamas.

One internal message said Mr Zohar had approved a policy to remove websites “supporting terrorism in the context of the conflict with Israel”. The message added that “websites aimed at collecting food and donations for Palestinian citizens should not be removed”.

Another message said the Israel-headquartered company had received a request “from the prime minister’s office” providing Wix with “lists of new keywords” to search. The post said that, in response, Wix would provide “a list of websites”, including “all the info that exists about the user”, including their email, IP address, as well as any data Wix had about payments made through the website.

Wix did not respond to requests for comment about the internal Slack messages.

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