Google’s head of diversity said Jews have ‘insatiable appetite for war, killing’ in revealed blog posts
Google is under fire after a post from its head of diversity was uncovered saying Jews have an “insatiable appetite for war and killing.”
Kamau Bobb, now the head of diversity at Google wrote a 2007 blog post entitled “If I Were A Jew,” in which he stated that Jews have an “insatiable appetite for war” and an “insensitivity to the suffering [of] others.” Bobb’s post also blasted Israel for its military actions in Gaza and Lebanon in that same year.
“If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself,” he wrote in the now-deleted post from November 30, 2007, on his personal blog. Bobb’s blog remains active, with the latest post going up as late as April of this year. “Self defense is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering [of] others.”
“If I were a Jew today, my sensibilities would be tormented,” the post continued. “I would find it increasingly difficult to reconcile the long cycles of oppression that Jewish people have endured and the insatiable appetite for vengeful violence that Israel, my homeland, has now acquired.”
Bobb went on to criticize Israel’s retaliatory military operations in Lebanon.
“I don’t know how I would reconcile that identity with the behavior of fundamentalist Jewish extremists or of Israel as a nation. The details would confuse me. I wouldn’t understand those who suggest that bombing Lebanon, slaughtering Lebanese people and largely destroying Beirut in retaliation for the capture of a few soldiers is justified,” he wrote.
“I wouldn’t understand the notion of collective punishment, cutting off gas, electricity and water from residents in Gaza because they are attacking Israel who is fighting against them. It would be unconscionable to me to watch Israeli tanks donning the Star of David rumbling through Ramallah destroying buildings and breaking the glass,” Bobb added.
Bobb noted that at the time it was the 79th anniversary of Kristallnacht, writing the significance of the date should lead Jews to oppose violence rather than embrace it, as he says they do.
“My reflections on Kristallnacht would lead me to feel that these are precisely the human sentiments that I as Jew would understand; that I ought to understand and feel compelled to help alleviate,” he wrote. “It cannot be that the sum total of a history of suffering and slaughter places such a premium on my identity that I would be willing to damn others in defense of it.”
Since the revelation of the blog post various pro-Israel groups have called for Bobb to be fired.
Google has relieved Bobb of his duties as head of diversity and reassigned him to working on STEM research. “We unequivocally condemn the past writings by a member of our diversity team that are causing deep offense and pain to members of our Jewish community. These writings are unquestionably hurtful. He will no longer be part of our diversity team… and will focus on his Stem work,” Google said in a statement to the Independent Chronicle.
“This has come at a time where we’ve seen an alarming increase in antisemitic attacks. Antisemitism is a vile prejudice that has given rise to unfathomable acts. It has no place in society and we stand with our Jewish community in condemning it,” the statement continued.