Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent retaliation have cost thousands of civilian lives over the last week and a half. And there’s little sign of the violence abating. While the public discourse has largely focused on the devastation and casualties on both sides, one CEO picked sides: Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave staunchly opposed Israel’s actions (but has since done a lot of clarifying of his stance).
On Oct. 7, Cosgrave shared a graphic comparing Palestinian and Israeli deaths from 2008 to 2023 on X (formerly Twitter), without the disclaimer that it didn’t include the fallout from Hamas’ attack (the post has since been deleted). Nearly a week after the heinous attack, Cosgrave expressed “shock” at the rhetoric from world leaders refusing to denounce Israel’s “war crimes.” For reference, US president Joe Biden said Israel has a right to respond—and pinned that tweet to his page.
But Yaron Samid, founder and chief of TechAviv, likened Cosgrave’s tone-deaf omission of Hamas’ brutality in his initial statements “to forgetting to mention 9/11 when condemning the US for killing civilians when retaliating against Al Qaeda.” (Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian territory, has been deemed a terrorist organization by the US, the UK, and other countries.)
Yesterday, nine days after the attack—probably succumbing to public pressure—he called Hamas’ actions “outrageous and disgusting.” However, within hours, he followed up to say he “will not relent” from calling out Israel’s “war crimes.” And then on Oct. 17, he issued a full apology:
“I understand that what I said, the timing of what I said, and the way it has been presented has caused profound hurt to many. To anyone who was hurt by my words, I apologise deeply,” Cosgrave wrote. “What is needed at this time is compassion, and I did not convey that. Web Summit has a long history of partnership with Israel and its tech firms, and I am deeply regretful that those friends were hurt by any of what I said.”
But the damage may have already been done. Over the last week, LinkedIn and X have been inundated with posts about founders and investors pulling back from Cosgrave’s Web Summit, a 70,000-person flagship tech event taking place in Lisbon next month.
Tech leaders in Israel and abroad drop out of the Web Summit
Specifically, members of Israel’s massive tech industry, which contributes to one-fifth of the country’s economic output, are cutting ties with the conference. For instance, Ori Goshen, the co-founder and co-CEO of Tel Aviv-based AI21 Labs, took to LinkedIn to announce that he won’t “give the keynote” at the event because he “cannot be part of such indecency and moral bankruptcy.”
Dor Shapira, the ambassador of Israel to Portugal, wrote to the mayor of Lisbon informing him that Israel will not participate, an update he shared on LinkedIn yesterday (Oct. 16). “Even during these difficult times, he [Cosgrave] is unable to set aside his extreme political views and denounce the Hamas terrorist activities against innocent people,” Shapira wrote, adding that dozens of companies have already canceled their participation and more are being encouraged to do so.
Members of the international tech community are also quitting the event in solidarity. Ravi Gupta, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia, decided against attending. California-based payroll provider Deel pulled out as a sponsor.
Some have vowed to steer clear of the Web Summit not just in 2023, but forever. Among them is longtime fintech entrepreneur and former Meta executive David Marcus, who posted that he would never again attend, sponsor, or speak at another Web Summit event.
Keith Rabois, the Founders Fund partner and entrepreneur, went a step further to say that he will “refuse to work with anyone who speaks at this conference in Qatar for the rest of my career.”
Place of interest: Qatar
First Round Capital founder Josh Kopelman, who created a public excel sheet tracking Cosgrave’s liked tweets about Israel’s “mass murder” strategy and more, suggested that Cosgrave may be the mouthpiece for a certain middle eastern government.
The investor who runs the US-based investment firm shared a screenshot of an email from Cosgrave discussing the Qatari government’s involvement in the February 2024 Qatar conference, captioning it, “Your sponsor is getting their moneys worth from you.” The exposé pushed Garry Tan, the head of Y Combinator, to cancel his Web Summit appearance.
On the day of Hamas’ attack, Cosgrave was in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where a Web Summit conference is scheduled to be held in February next year.
Qatar’s ties to Hamas run long and deep. In 2012, the emir of Qatar became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas took full control in 2007, and pledged $400 million to build infrastructure. Two years later, Qatar was accused of harboring (now former) Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in a US House hearing which claimed that “Qatar for many years has openly financed Hamas.”
Cosgrave addressed his link to Qatar in his Oct. 17 apology: “With regard to Web Summit’s event in Qatar next year, I would highlight Secretary [Antony] Blinken’s public thanks to Qatar for their support in this crisis, and in wider issues affecting the region: ‘Qatar has been a very close partner to the United States on a broad range of issues that are crucial to both of our countries and to this region… The United States and Qatar share the goal of preventing this conflict from spreading.’”