A woman who was fired after describing Israel as a terrorist state has said she stands over her statements.
Courtney Carey, from Clondalkin, said she lost her job with immediate effect at tech firm Wix, which has offices in Dublin, due to alleged gross misconduct.
Chief operations officer and president of Wix.com, Nir Zohar, posted on LinkedIn earlier this week that the company decided to part ways with an employee after being bombarded with messages.
He said the messages were sent by Israeli employees, friends and colleagues from all over the world who sent screenshots of one of its employees stating that Israel is a terrorist state.
‘Not okay to dismiss somebody because of their political views’ – Leo Varadkar on Dublin woman sacked by Wix over anti-Israel posts
Wix is a popular platform used to create websites.
It comes as Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Tuesday described reports of Ms Carey’s termination as “unacceptable” saying employees “should be allowed their individual viewpoints”, while the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said she should seek legal advice.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Ms Carey said: “My only statement is that I stand by my statements, those of which were anti-war and anti-terrorism.”
She referred to her LinkedIn post on the “dire situation in Gaza right now”.
“I would rather use this voice to amplify innocent people living in oppressive apartheid regime,” she said.
Ms Carey said the reason for her termination was because of comments made by her online.
“Basically the sentiment was that the social media posts that I made were offensive to the Israeli colleagues,” Ms Carey said.
Since posting the comments online, Ms Carey said she has been sent abusive messages, which has impacted her mental health.
“The absolute onslaught of abuse and death threats and rape threats that I’ve received from it has been absolutely unbelievable,” she said.
Ms Carey said she was considering bringing her termination case to the Workplace Relations Commission.
Earlier, she reposted a post by former Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave.
Mr Cosgrave resigned from his role following a backlash over his public statements on the conflict.
In his LinkedIn post, Wix president Nir Zohar said team members in Israel have been through so much since the horrible October 7 Hamas attack.
He said in the midst of this, for all the Israelis to be called terrorists by someone they perceive as a teammate and a colleague is unfathomable, unexplainable and unacceptable.
“The employee posted something inflammatory of a similar kind last week,” he said.
He said she was asked by her manager to be sensitive to her peers after being told how much pain this is causing her foreign colleagues, and removed that post.
He said a few days later, a post was made that “essentially points a blaming finger at the victims of horrific terrorism”.
“Wix is a global company, it is an open and a liberal company,” he said.
“We would never try to limit anyone’s political views, we do however also hold a strong set of internal values about our team spirit, partnership and friendship.
“These accusations in such troubling times not only harm our Israeli team’s spirit, they also threaten the great connection between our Dublin offices with our 500 team members and their Israeli colleagues. We therefore decided to part ways with this employee.”
Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, the Taoiseach said he would advise Ms Carey to seek legal advice if her dismissal was over her political views.
Solidarity TD Mick Barry had raised her dismissal.
Mr Barry said: “She commented online about what she described correctly as the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. She was fired from her job for doing so. I am calling on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to speak out on this case.
“It could have a chilling effect on thousands of workers in this country who wish to speak out against a brutal war. It also creates a terrible precedent whereby workers can be fired for expressing a political point of view.”
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the Dail that the case was “particularly disturbing”.
He said: “They sacked her because she had put posts online that according to her are quite mild posts, where she essentially laid the responsibility for the current violence in Gaza on the shoulders of the Israeli government for its apartheid policies, its occupation and its siege of Gaza.”
In response, Mr Varadkar said he did not know the details or facts of the case and therefore could not pass judgment.
However, he added: “Under Irish employment law, it is not okay to dismiss somebody because of their political views.
“I believe that to be wrong and would encourage the woman concerned to seek advice, whether from the WRC, a trade union or a solicitor, because it may well constitute wrongful dismissal and there are remedies that would then apply.
“Of course, all the facts would need to be known before we know what the outcome will be.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin described reports of Ms Carey’s termination today as “unacceptable”.
He said: “I think employees generally should be allowed their individual viewpoints.
“We live in a democracy here, we tolerate debate, we’ve freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, and people have different opinions on these issues.
“People are entitled to have perspectives once they don’t advocate violence in the pursuit of those objectives.”
He said he was not familiar with the particular case, but added: “We uphold the rights of people to freedom of expression.”
Owen Reidy, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, tweeted on Wednesday that “this is completely wrong and unacceptable in Ireland today”.
“Workers must be allowed free speech,” he said.
“This worker may have a serious case for unfair dismissal and if a union member should get advice.”
Barry Crushell, employment law solicitor, said workers should think about how their boss might react before sharing social media posts online.
Speaking generally, he said an employee may have a solid unfair dismissal case if fired on the spot but some bosses may be more willing to risk legal repercussions than reputational damage.
