Web Summit finds itself at the center of a scandal over its founder’s stance on Israel

Representatives of Israel’s tech community are outraged by Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave’s comments on the conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip, writes TechCrunch.

It all started when Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed about 1,400 people. At the time, many people, including on social media, expressed shock, sympathy, and support for Israel. Paddy Cosgrave’s reaction was different – he published posts that talked about Israel’s “unfair” response to the militant attack.

The Web Summit founder did not stop there. He also stated that he was “shocked by the rhetoric and actions of many Western leaders” in support of Israel. All this led to the fact that representatives of the IT industry began to refuse to participate in the Web Summit.

For example, Lightspark CEO David Marcus said he would never attend, sponsor or speak at future Web Summit events.

“You chose to support terrorists. As such I’ll never attend/sponsor/speak at any of your events again,” he wrote on the X platform.

This was not an isolated reaction. Ori Goshen, co-founder of the Israeli startup AI21 Labs, also refused to participate in the event.

“…we at AI21 cannot be part of such indecency and moral bankruptcy. We will not attend WebSummit, and I will not give the keynote,” he announced on LinkedIn.

Israel’s Ambassador to Portugal Dor Shapiro said he had written to the mayor of Lisbon and informed him that Israel would not participate in the conference “because of the outrageous statements made by the conference’s CEO, Paddy Cosgrave.”

After all, 9 days after the bloody terrorist attack, the event’s founder wrote that he condemned Hamas’s attacks. However, he also added that “war crimes are still war crimes, even if committed by allies, and should be spoken of as such.”