NEW YORK – An Amazon executive’s necklace featuring a pendant shaped like a map of Israel with the Palestinian flag superimposed has ignited controversy online, with some social media users pledging to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions and calling for the executive’s removal.
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Ruba Borno, who serves as the vice president of specialists and partners at Amazon Web Services (AWS), appeared in an official company video promoting an upcoming company event in Las Vegas. In the video, Borno was wearing the necklace, which includes a map showing the region encompassing present-day Israel along with the West Bank and Gaza—territories Palestinians claim for an independent state.
Several users on the platform X (formerly Twitter) shared screenshots of the video, expressing outrage and alleging that the image promoted the notion of a Palestinian state stretching “from the river to the sea.” One commenter, Alex Wilner, labeled the gesture “unacceptable” and called for immediate action, tagging Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in the post. Another user vowed to cancel their Amazon Prime subscription in response.
In reaction to the backlash, Amazon removed the video, clarifying through a spokesperson that it “was not intended to make a political statement,” adding that it plans to upload an updated version in the near future.
Meanwhile, some online discussions also highlighted that Alexander Sasha Trupanov, an Israeli employee of an Amazon affiliate, was recently taken hostage in Gaza. Critics pointed out that Amazon had not made a public appeal for his release, further intensifying the controversy surrounding the company’s response.
Borno, who has held her position at Amazon Web Services since November 2021, was born to a Palestinian family that lived in Kuwait until the Gulf War in 1990. After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Borno’s family, including one of her sisters who was born in the United States, was evacuated by the U.S. Embassy. She holds advanced degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and has prior experience at companies such as Boston Consulting Group, Cisco, and Experian.
Claiming it ‘was not intended to make a political statement’ only adds insult to injury, as if everyone is too naive to recognize her true motives. Gosh.
we should all write to Bezos and express our disgust that his executives such anti senitism. Israel does not belong to Gaza or the so called Palestinians. If they want their homeland its the Trans Jordan from which the late King Husein threw them out
I sent this to the CANARY website in Israel, where they publicly “out” and post pro-hamas people to discredit them.
If you have ever been interviewed, you know everyone in marketing has eyes on everything – you can’t even wear a branded t-shirt. It was all intended by her and the entire chain of decision-makers. Something is wrong at Amazon – the company that had one of its software managers kidnapped from a party – and has VPs there who keep shouting for the elimination of all Israelis.
Another ugly Karen gets exposed.
Politics in the work place is not good.
Hatred in the work place is very bad
The only tool that works is boycotting. Let Amazon know that we won’t buy or sell anything from their site. Screaming and writing letters and emails won’t do anything. Unfortunately, we won’t boycott them, because we as a community have become too addicted to them.
Politics is the work place is not good.
I don’t think most people realize that Alexa is really intended to be Al Aqsa.
Big deal I have a necklace shape pager of Lebanon
Right wingers rant and rave their hostility to cancel culture. This is why we need it.