June 26, 2024

To Marc and Leadership,

Salesforce has always positioned itself as a vehicle for advancing equality, fairness, and justice through "Do Well by Doing Good"; this has included not shying away from taking a stance on current events. For example, when Indiana passed a law to allow businesses to refuse to serve people based on religious beliefs, you threatened to move all Salesforce operations out of the state and effectively pressured the governor to change the law.

More recently, Salesforce was quick to issue a statement and mobilize resources in support of the victims of the October 7th attack. Within a few days, the company announced a donation of $2.4 million to Israeli nonprofits, and deployed internal resources to ensure the physical and emotional well-being of impacted employees in Israel.

In the 8 months since, however, Salesforce has been unresponsive and silent as the situation unfolded further. During this time, Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza has killed over 37,000 Palestinians and wounded over 86,000, and broke the modern record for the most children and journalists killed in a conflict. More than 80% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed, along with 80% of schools. Out of 36 hospitals in Gaza, only 10 remain even partially functional following a series of targeted strikes. In blatant disregard of international humanitarian law, houses of worship, schools, aid convoys, ambulances, and refugee camps have been targeted purposefully. The brutality of this collective punishment has horrified the entire world, drawing censure from the International Court of Justice, and condemnation from the International Criminal Court as well as many globally respected aid organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and World Central Kitchen.

Despite all of the above, instead of reviewing its responsibilities as a business operating in the region, Salesforce has not only created an assistance program for Israeli startups but also insisted that "Salesforce Israel continues to be one of our most critical strategic product and engineering sites...". Internally, leadership has failed to be proactive in supporting impacted Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and allied employees. In fact, you have decided to silence our colleagues' ability to share their grief and mourn their dead and injured loved ones by censoring the use of the word "genocide". You have prevented the sharing of news articles, and ultimately refused any acknowledgment of the conflict at all. Anyone speaking up against the genocide now risks disciplinary action that threatens their careers, and in practice this has been abused to disproportionately target Arab and Muslim employees.

Marc, you once said "When you see a problem, don't wait for someone else to solve it. Be the change you want to see." We, the signatories of this letter—employees, customers, partners and rangers—are taking you up on that. We demand that you live up to Salesforce's values through the following actions:

1. Cease matching donations to organizations that perpetuate violence against Palestinians, such as:

• Friends of the IDF, self described as "the sole organization authorized to collect charitable donations on behalf of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces across the United States of America".

• HaYovel, an organization whose website documents decades of monetary support for illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories, which they describe as "a place many incorrectly refer to as the West Bank"

• ZAKA, whose volunteers have repeatedly and knowingly spread atrocity propaganda that has been instrumental in manufacturing consent for Israel's assault on Gaza. The pattern of Zaka volunteers spreading misinformation is well-documented by various news outlets.

• Jewish National Fund, which Israel has used to secretly purchase hundreds of dunams of private, Palestinian-owned land for illegal settlements.

2. Provide support and safety for Palestinian employees and their allies

• Release a statement of support and offer internal resources  and financial assistance specifically for employees with family in Palestine impacted by the genocide

• Allow employees to openly grieve the ~40,000 Palestinian lives lost in the last 8 months

• Drop all ADL corporate partnerships. Ensure the ADL will not be utilized as a partner in crafting any Salesforce policy, training, or event due to its long track record of disinformation, racism and undermining the rights of Arab, Muslim, Black and other marginalized communities.

3. Ensure that Salesforce is not complicit in genocide, apartheid, and occupation in Palestine:

• Investigate and share the current use of Salesforce technology and resources for complicity.

• Take concrete steps to end complicity through actions such as:

  • Ceasing future investments in (and acquisitions of) Israeli companies

  • Adopting company policy that prohibits business relationships with the Israeli government, weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and other entities that are complicit

  • Winding down Salesforce's business presence in Israel