Note: This letter is open to all for signatures. Please share and distribute. Similar action is encouraged at other complicit companies.

~ Apples Against Apartheid, home of the Apples4Ceasefire campaign

To Apple leadership,

On July 19th 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a groundbreaking ruling¹ finding Israel guilty of apartheid, and called upon corporations and all institutions to end complicity.

We, Apples Against Apartheid and Apple stakeholders, including current/former employees, shareholders, customers, and the public, demand that Apple honors this call.

The crimes against Palestinians are too grave for Apple to continue complicity.

• 1 | APARTHEID: The ICJ has ruled Israel to be an apartheid ethnocracy that systematically violates the basic economic, civil, and human rights of Palestinians. This includes unequal access to labor rights, civilian courts, land ownership, freedom of movement, and economic/political participation.

• 2 | GENOCIDE: The death toll of the genocide in Gaza is estimated to be at least 186,000 Palestinians according to The Lancet². The UN³, ICJ ⁴, and humanitarian organizations are sounding alarms on systematic genocide via mass-killing attacks, weaponized famine, aid blockades, induced epidemics including polio and hepatitis, and targeted decimation of basic infrastructure including hospitals, water/food/electricity sources, homes, shelters, and schools.

• 3 | SYSTEMIC KIDNAPPING AND ARBITRARY DETENTION of thousands of innocent Palestinians including children, with documented widespread torture, rape, and sexual violence against captives including the children UN OHCHR⁵, Save the Children⁶.

• 4 | OCCUPATION AND ETHNIC CLEANSING: Forced displacement, violent dispossession, and subjugation of millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and historic Palestine.

Apple is complicit in apartheid!

Tim Cook once told employees:

"At Apple, we do the right thing. Even when it's not easy. If you see something that doesn't meet our standards, speak up. Whether it's a quality issue or a business practice, if it affects Apple's integrity, we need to know about it."

We are heeding this call and speaking up about egregious violations of Apple standards:

• 1 | Apple directly contributes to apartheid in Israeli offices, including:

· Rampant discriminatory under-hiring of Palestinians, with less than 5% Palestinian representation or none at all being typical across many teams. This includes / both / Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, who often work in Israel. This is severely disproportionate to the population composition of qualified candidates, flagrantly violating Apple's equal opportunity hiring policies and Racial Equity and Justice Initiative REJI⁷.

· Unequal employment access for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, while simultaneously employing Israelis who have residences in neighboring / illegal / settlements.

· Poorer working conditions for the few Palestinian employees, who widely report facing racism, supremacism, poor treatment, unequal access to opportunities, and limited recourse for accountability or legal protection.

· Economic complicity, including building a significant business presence in Israel since 2012 and allowing war profiteers on the board like Ronald D. Sugar of Northrop Grumman and Susan L. Wagner of Blackrock.

· War crimes complicity, including paying salaries for employees actively serving in the Israeli military per local laws, employing former Israeli soldiers without independently screening for war crimes, and contributing to local expertise in technology areas with sensitive military applications including machine learning and facial recognition.

• 2 | Globally, Apple has poorer, exclusionary, and retaliatory working conditions for Palestinian and allied employees, including:

· Retaliatory firings, verbal and written intimidation, and disproportionate disciplinary measures in response to harmless, legally protected expressions of Palestinian identity.

· Collective punishment of anti-genocide Muslims and Jews at Apple, including the ongoing shutdown of the Muslims@Apple Diversity Network Association (DNA) channel. This is especially exclusionary given that other DNA groups continue to operate normally, and disregards the rich ethnic and religious diversity of both Palestinians and allies.

· Dehumanizing silence from Apple leadership: 2 days after Oct. 7th 2023, Apple leadership sent an internal email acknowledging the loss of innocent Israeli life, but still has yet to send such an email directly acknowledging the loss of innocent Palestinian life despite the sheer magnitude of suffering. This clear double-standard dehumanizes Palestinian employees, many of whom have lost loved ones / en mass /.

· Widespread low morale amongst Palestinian and allied employees due to identity-based marginalization, fear of retaliation, and infringement upon spaces for suffering employees to find community.

• 3 | Apple does not screen donation matching offers for organizations that contribute to illegal settlements, apartheid, war crimes, and other violations of international law. This includes HaYovel, JNF, Friends of the IDF, One Israel Fund, and IsraelGives. (openletter.earth/apple-cease-funding-for-illegal-s...)

We demand that Apple take the following steps to end its complicity.

• 1 | Apple must stop contributing to apartheid: Equal Opportunity Employment in Israel/Palestine, or Divestment

· Apple must immediately enforce Equal Opportunity Employment and Racial Equity & Justice in its offices for both Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank, which can include opening a Palestinian office in the West Bank.

· If unwilling or unable to fully achieve this, then Apple must divest entirely and relocate operations and teams elsewhere. This also serves employee safety and business interests by reducing risk exposure to rapidly escalating instability.

• 2 | Apple must establish a screening process and end donation matching offers for organizations that contribute to violations of international law, including HaYovel, JNF, Friends of the IDF, One Israel Fund, and IsraelGives.⁸

• 3 | Apple must restore safe, equal, and inclusive working conditions for Palestinian and allied employees. This includes ending retaliation against expressions of Palestinian identity and solidarity, reinstating affected identity groups, and directly acknowledging the horrific suffering of Palestinians in an internal email.

Calls to boycott Apple are alarmingly escalating. Apple must act immediately to avoid the risk of becoming a focused target of the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has been highly effective, especially with consumer-facing companies like Apple. Apple leadership must protect employees and business interests by doing the right thing and ending complicity in apartheid.

It was once said that Apple considered its people the soul of their company. But over the last 11 months, Apple has shattered the souls of its people in a flagrant disregard for Palestinian humanity.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who Apple spotlights every year on its website, "this is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action."

Signed,

Apples Against Apartheid, the general public, stakeholders, and current/former employees.

Note: You must verify your signature via email in order for it to be visible. If you don't get a verification email, check your spam, or try a different email.

¹ icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/1...

² thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-673...

³ ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/h...

⁴ icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/1...

⁵ ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/un-report-pale...

⁶ savethechildren.net/news/stripped-beaten-and-blind...

⁷ apple.com/racial-equity-justice-initiative/...

⁸ openletter.earth/apple-cease-funding-for-illegal-s...