Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman took to his X social media account over the weekend to defend e-commerce giant Amazon after the company came under fire for its silence on the issue of Israeli employees being held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Sasha Turfanov, 28, a computer engineer at Tel Aviv-based microelectronics company Annapurna Labs (an Amazon subsidiary), was one of about 250 people abducted by Hamas terrorists in a deadly attack on October 7 that left some 1,200 Israelis dead.
Amazon workers in Israel have held signs, made T-shirts and held events in solidarity with Trufanov, but are reportedly frustrated by management’s refusal to make a public statement about his kidnapping.
Ackman called Amazon a “responsible and ethical company” and argued that management hasn’t said anything publicly about Trufanov because they “don’t believe it’s prudent to say anything about the situation.”
“You must believe that speaking out publicly would do more harm than good,” Ackman wrote.
Israeli publications reported over the weekend that employees at Amazon’s Israel-based technology subsidiary were discouraged from holding up signs indicating the number of days Turfanov has been held hostage by Hamas.
On the morning of October 7, Hamas militants entered Trufanov’s hometown of Nir Oz Kibbutz, near the Gaza border, and captured Trufanov, his boyfriend Sapir Cohen, his mother Elena Trufanov, and his grandmother Irena Tati.
Trufanov’s father, Vitali, a Russian immigrant to Israel, was murdered.
Trufanov’s mother, grandmother and girlfriend were released by Hamas six weeks after the attack as part of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and the Israeli government.
On the day of the massacre, Cohen witnessed her boyfriend being “bloodied, beaten and thrown face-first onto the ground,” she said. Jerusalem Post Reported last week.
Trufanov remains a prisoner of war more than seven months later.
After the massacre, Jewish employees at Amazon’s offices in Israel and around the world wanted a sign posted on the company’s premises indicating the number of days Turfanov had been held captive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
But the idea was shot down by Amazon’s human resources executives, according to one research outlet. The Hebrew business newspaper Globes reported:
The report said workers had asked Amazon management to put the instructions in writing but were refused.
“Someone had the idea to put together a juxtaposition of the number of hours Sasha worked at Amazon and the number of days she was incarcerated. [from management] “We had no intention of hanging them,” the Amazon employee reportedly told Globes.
The Post has reached out to Amazon for comment.
Despite the human resources department’s instructions, several Amazon employees in Israel began holding up signs in solidarity with Trufanov.
They also posted signs announcing regular group meetings known as “Coffee for Sasha,” according to Globes.
Several employees made T-shirts with the logo of Amazon’s Prime service printed next to messages calling for his release.
Amazon executives have reportedly tolerated this activity without intervening or cracking down on it.
But Globes reports that employees at Amazon offices around the world are more afraid to take similar solidarity action.
Globes quoted one employee as saying employees were frustrated by the silence of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and other Amazon executives outside Israel.
“Amazon has Jewish employees who only found out about the fact that Amazon employees had been held captive in Gaza a couple of months later,” the employee said.
Just weeks after the Oct. 7 massacre, friends of Mr. Trufanov, outraged by the company’s official policy of silence on the issue, flew to Las Vegas, where the Amazon Web Services CEO was speaking at a conference.
Trufanov’s friends rented a truck loaded with a screen with Trufanov’s face and name printed on it and drove it around the conference venue for attendees to see.
Neta Yesud Alon, a friend of Turfanov’s who attended the Las Vegas protest, told Globes that Amazon management had “snubbed” employees’ expressions of solidarity with their detained colleagues.
“Amazon Israel is helping us with whatever we need, but if that’s not getting out there, then who is the message going to?” she said.
Yesoud Alon said he was “confused” by Amazon’s stance because while the company has supported causes such as Black Lives Matter in the past, “when it comes to its workers who have been kidnapped and held hostage in Gaza, it is politicizing it.”
She said Amazon employees told her and other friends of Trufanov that “speaking publicly about his affair would put him at risk.”
“They told activists and family members that a public statement from Amazon could put Trufanov at risk and that they did not want to make Sasha a poster boy for kidnapped Israelis. [the price that the Israeli government would have to pay] “To set him free,” she said.
Yesud Alon said he and others asked Yossi Cohen, the former director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, whether this was true and “his answer was a resounding no.”
An Amazon spokesperson told Globes: “We continue to do all we can to bring Sasha home safely and support his family during this difficult time.”
“Our thoughts are with them and with all those who continue to be affected by the war.”
