Palestinian employee Nouraldin Alsweirki has won a landmark legal victory over his former employer, Dutch software company Speakap B.V., which fired him in October 2023 over LinkedIn posts in which he supported the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation. This dismissal had significant consequences not only for Nouraldin but also for his family in Gaza. The Court of Amsterdam affirmed on 1 November 2024 that Speakap had discriminated against Nouraldin based on his political beliefs and ordered the company to pay a significant amount of compensation to him. Now, three months later, Speakap has officially let the deadline to appeal the Court’s decision expire, making the judgement final.
On 30 August 2023, Nouraldin, who is from Gaza and lived as a refugee in Turkey at the time, signed an employment contract with Speakap accepting the role of Frontend Engineer. In the days following 7 October 2023, he wrote many LinkedIn posts expressing his support for the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation. At that time, several of his relatives and friends were killed in Gaza by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). On 17 October 2023, Speakap informed Nouraldin that he had been dismissed on the ground that some colleagues would experience discomfort at his “strong personal opinions”. Earlier, the company had asked Nouraldin whether he would be willing to remove his LinkedIn contributions whenever requested, which he agreed to comply with.
Significant consequences
The decision meant that Nouraldin’s visa and residence permit were no longer valid to travel to the Netherlands. Having already given up his place and belongings in Turkey, Nouraldin was forced to apply for asylum in the Netherlands. As a result, with its decision Speakap had ensured that the evacuation of Nouraldin’s wife and family from the Israeli genocidal onslaught on Gaza was made impossible since a person who has applied for asylum cannot apply for family reunification until they have their residency permit in the Netherlands.
No impunity for employers like Speakap
Nouraldin decided to fight back. He contacted the European Legal Support Center (ELSC), and through the lawyer Seyma Arikan from Spuistraat 10 Advocaten he filed a claim for unlawful dismissal. Following the decision issued by the Dutch Human Rights Board (College voor de Rechten van de Mens) in June 2024, the Court of Amsterdam in November 2024 ruled that Speakap had discriminated against Nouraldin on the basis of his political beliefs. This is unlawful under Article 7:681 of the Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek) and under the Equal Treatment Act (Algemene wet gelijke behandeling). The Court ordered Speakap to pay Nouraldin a significant compensation not only for unlawful dismissal but also for emotional harm inflicted.
A landmark legal victory
The Court’s judgement demonstrates that expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and criticism of Israel, including speaking out for the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation also through armed struggle, are protected political beliefs on the basis of which you cannot be discriminated against according to Dutch anti-discrimination law. Resisting the Israeli colonial occupation that has been committing crimes against humanity since at least 1948, the right of the Palestinian people to armed struggle is enshrined in international law in Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and reinforced in UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions such as 37/43 from 1982.
This legal victory arrives at a critical moment in the Dutch context, amidst growing anti-Palestinian repression and a racist Dutch government increasingly attacking fundamental rights. The ELSC has observed a rise in workplace censorship, including in the Netherlands, where employees expressing solidarity with Palestine face intensified silencing. Although generally lacking any legal grounds, (the mere threat of) disciplinary investigation, dismissal, online surveillance, and harassment can create a chilling effect deterring workers from expressing solidarity with Palestine and standing up against the grave human rights violations in which employers may even be complicit. Often these cases go unrecorded as workers are worried about their employment. This legal victory, however, demonstrates that there can no longer be impunity for employers that repress anti-genocide, anti-apartheid, and anti-colonial voices – and the ELSC encourages employees to speak out, to keep records of the repression by an employer wherever it occurs, and to reach out to the ELSC for legal support or advice.
Nouraldin Alsweirki commented: “Genocide is highly radioactive; no distance keeps you safe from it. People should never feel safe to commit or enable crimes as that creates a very dark and despicable world for all of us, a world where your same justifications to shed blood will be reused to shed yours and other innocent’s. Everybody has a duty to oppose genocide.”
Juul Seesing, from the ELSC, said: “Speakap is an employer like so many in the Netherlands; their business-as-usual will not be inconvenienced by people speaking out against a genocidal occupation. According to companies like Speakap, Palestinians are supposed to do their jobs silently amidst an ongoing genocide against their people because it might make a privileged person or two ‘uncomfortable’. Let this case be a message to all employers complicit in repressing dissent and discriminating against people experiencing and opposing genocide, apartheid, and settler colonialism; your time of impunity is over.”
Lawyer Seyma Arikan, from Spuistraat 10 Advocaten, concluded: “First the verdict of the Human Rights Board and now the ruling of the Court emphasise that dismissal on the basis of one’s political views is unlawful, obviously also when those views oppose the Israeli apartheid regime. These rulings respect the constitutional right to equal treatment and underscore the prohibition of discrimination based on political beliefs.”
