Tech for Palestine Summit in Bay Area Sponsored by Alleged Turkish-Linked CAIR Action
Pro-Palestinian tech advocacy group hosting upcoming summit faces mounting concerns over antisemitic rhetoric from staff, alleged terror-linked partnerships, and a sponsor under federal scrutiny
On January 24, 2026, Tech for Palestine will host a summit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, bringing together technology entrepreneurs, venture investors, and pro-Palestine activists from the tech sector. But the organization orchestrating the event—and its primary financial backer—have themselves become deeply controversial, with documented concerns about their leadership, methods, and affiliations.
Tech for Palestine was founded in late 2023 by Irish technology entrepreneur Paul Biggar, creator of the software companies CircleCI and Darklang. Biggar launched the organization following Israel's response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, which he characterized as genocide in a viral blog post titled "I Can't Sleep" published in December 2023. Approximately nine days after publishing the post, Biggar was removed from the board of directors of CircleCI, the company he founded.
The summit features speakers including Replit founder Amjad Masad and Outschool CEO Amir Nathoo, along with venture capitalists, biotech executives, tech industry activists, and representatives from nonprofits. The lineup includes UpScrolled founder Issam Hijazi, Arcellx Chairman and CEO Rami Elghandour, organizers from the “No Azure for Apartheid” campaign against Microsoft.
The speaker list for the event also includes Guy Christensen, a TikTok influencer with more than 3 million followers who has publicly endorsed violence against Israelis. Christensen declared "I do not condemn the elimination of the Zionist officials who worked at the Israeli embassy," and called on followers to "support Elias's actions," referring to Elias Rodriguez, who has been charged with two counts of murder in connection with an attack that killed two Israeli embassy employees. Christensen characterized Rodriguez as a "resistance fighter" rather than a terrorist.
The event’s primary sponsor is CAIR Action, the political arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which serves as the Gold Sponsor. CAIR Action itself faces substantial legal challenges and scrutiny over unlicensed political operations across 22 states and alleged foreign government alignment with Turkey.
Troubling Personnel and Leadership
Tech for Palestine operates with a volunteer network of what it describes as “dozens of founders, engineers, investors, product managers, marketing professionals, community organizers, and activists.” However, several key volunteers have raised significant red flags.
Tom Hall, the organization’s Director of Operations, posted an openly antisemitic entry on his Substack in July 2025. Hall wrote: “I really hate to say this, and I wish I didn’t have to, but I’m 56 years old and for the first time in my life I’m extremely uncomfortable around Jewish people, or people who I think might be Jewish.” Hall frequently posts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on social media, describing himself as someone who only began learning about the issue after “Operation Al-aqsa Flood”, Hamas’ terminology for the October 7th massacre.
Nimr Sawafta, T4P’s Development Team Lead and a lead developer on the organization’s AI chatbot project, features the red triangle symbol on his Instagram profile—imagery commonly associated with Hamas support, as the terror group uses it in videos to identify targets.
Other personnel raise similar concerns. Omar Hamayel, who serves as T4P’s Volunteer Finance Leader, graduated from Birzeit University, an institution with reported ties to Hamas through its students and student government. Several Birzeit students were arrested in July 2024 for planning to carry out a terror attack orchestrated by Hamas operatives in Turkey. Hamas-affiliated parties have also won the student government elections at Birzeit several times since 2022.
Reem Qawasmi, listed among the leadership of Entrepreneurs for Palestine (an offshoot of T4P), also studied at Birzeit University. Miguel de Icaza, CEO of Xibbon and a featured speaker at Entrepreneurs for Palestine’s launch, has used inflammatory language on social media, including posts like “Israel is proceeding with their speed run of their genocide” and claims that “Israel assassinated the entire staff of Al Jazeera in Gaza today. They will finally be able to finish their genocide without those upsetting images.”
Deep Ties to Allegedly Terror-Linked BDS Movement
One of Tech for Palestine’s defining features is its relationship with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) National Committee, a Ramallah-based organization with documented ties to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations. One of the founding organizations in the BDS National Committee is the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces, a coalition that includes five U.S.-designated terrorist organizations: Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front–General Command, the Palestine Liberation Front, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In November 2024, Tech for Palestine announced that its “Boycat” app—a consumer boycott application—became an official partner of the global BDS Movement. The partnership made Boycat the first boycott app backed by the BDS network. The app, which allows users to scan product barcodes to identify companies on boycott lists, grew to over one million users by late 2024.
T4P and BDS accounts frequently amplify each other on social media and in June 2025, Tech for Palestine signed an open letter from the BNC calling on the United Nations to end partnerships with technology companies deemed complicit in what the letter characterized as “atrocity crimes.” The documented partnerships and co-promotions underscore that T4P is, effectively, the tech innovation hub for the BDS Movement.
Collaboration with Foundation Led by Former Hezbollah Member
Beyond its BDS partnership, Tech for Palestine has promoted projects designed to dox and harass Israeli soldiers residing outside the country. In an interview with Turkish state-run media outlet TRT World at the Web Summit in Doha, founder Paul Biggar stated that his organization works with a number of initiatives focused on cataloging social media activity by IDF soldiers. Biggar specifically praised the Hind Rajab Foundation, describing it as “probably the best one” among such projects.
The Hind Rajab Foundation operates a systematic campaign to compile and publicize identifying information about Israeli soldiers living abroad, with the stated purpose of exposing them to legal challenges and creating security risks. The organization’s founder and chairman, Dyab Abou Jahjah, is a former Hezbollah member who claims to have received military training from the terror group in Lebanon.
The Wikipedia Scandal
In late 2024, an investigation by the tech publication Pirate Wires exposed that Tech for Palestine had coordinated a campaign to mass edit Wikipedia articles in violation of the encyclopedia’s Code of Conduct. T4P opened a dedicated Discord channel called “tfp-wikipedia-collaboration” to systematically coordinate volunteers in editing articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The campaign ran from October 7, 2023 through late 2024.
In December 2024, Wikipedia sanctioned three editors for their involvement in the Discord server coordination. Following the discovery, T4P immediately deleted the channel’s contents from the Discord server.
Controversial AI and Technical Tools
Tech for Palestine has deployed several technical tools designed to advance its advocacy. The organization created “Pal-Chat,” an artificial intelligence chatbot that answers questions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from what it describes as a “hasbara free” perspective.
The chatbot, however, has generated significant controversy for its extremist positions. When asked whether Hamas’ October 7th attack was justified, Pal-Chat responded “The October 7 attack by Hamas was a legitimate act of resistance”. This represents an AI system created by T4P that endorses terrorist attacks.
The organization has also created datasets designed to facilitate boycotts, including the “Boycott Israeli Tech Companies Dataset,” the “Anti-Palestinian VC Funds List,” and the “Boycott Israeli Consumer Goods Dataset”—effectively creating targeting lists for companies and investors deemed insufficiently supportive of Palestinian causes.
Growing Reach
Despite its recent formation, Tech for Palestine has built significant reach. The organization operates through Discord with over 10,000 members coordinating projects and campaigns. It maintains substantial social media presence across X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms. The organization also maintains an extensive presence on GitHub, the developer platform, where it hosts code repositories and datasets.
In August 2025, Tech for Palestine launched a podcast called "Occupied Tech" in partnership with Dropsite News, a "Palestinian-led media outlet" that regularly conducts exclusive interviews with top Hamas leadership. The podcast, hosted by founder Paul Biggar, aims to "break down the mechanics of the tech industry and how it powers Israel's genocide."
CAIR Action’s Legal Troubles
The summit’s primary sponsor, CAIR Action, operates as an unlicensed national political-solicitation enterprise across 22 American states without obtaining required business licenses or charitable solicitation permits, according to an investigation released in December 2025.
The California Attorney General confirmed in November 2025 that “CAIR Action has received no authorization to solicit funds” in the state, yet the organization continues soliciting donations and issuing political endorsements. The investigation concluded that CAIR Action’s activities could constitute wire fraud, deceptive solicitation, and false statements to the IRS, and was referred to the Department of Justice, FBI, Federal Trade Commission, and Internal Revenue Service.
Additionally, watchdog groups the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN) documented a "converging pattern of foreign-state alignment, particularly involving Turkish government-linked institutions" within CAIR. Technical indicators revealed that CAIR Action's official accounts were routed through the Turkey App Store, a significant finding given Turkey's known status as a hub for Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood operatives and financing. In December 2025, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated CAIR as a terrorist organization.
Pattern of Extremism and Escalation
Since its founding in late 2023, Tech for Palestine has established itself as a significant player in pro-Palestinian tech activism. However, the organization’s formal partnership with the allegedly terror-tied BDS National Committee, the presence of personnel who have expressed antisemitic views, and the documented Wikipedia manipulation campaign collectively raise substantial questions about its methods and leadership.
Despite its name and stated mission, the activities of Tech for Palestine appear to be more oriented toward opposing Israel than toward concrete initiatives supporting Palestinian communities or technological development. The organization's work centers on boycott campaigns, targeting specific investors and companies, and opposition messaging rather than on substantive projects that would tangibly improve conditions for Palestinians.
The organization’s willingness to deploy AI systems that endorse terrorist attacks, create targeting lists for companies and investors, and orchestrate platform manipulation campaigns suggests an approach to advocacy that operates at the margins of acceptable practice.