Jewish Employee at Cisco Resigns, Denounces Cisco for Genocide Profiteering and ICE Collaboration

Rebecca Firestone submitted this open letter following her July 3 resignation from Cisco where she was employed for 3.5 years as a Senior Technical Writer.

Photo captured by Rebecca Firestone at the NYC World Holocaust Remembrance Day teach-in on January 27, 2024 where UN experts presented evidence on Israel’s genocide in Palestine. [Medium]

The following article is an expanded version of Rebecca’s LinkedIn post from Sunday, July 13, 2025.

July 3, 2025 was my last day at Cisco. I am now free to openly object, as a Jewish person, to Cisco’s pivotal role in powering ICE as well as Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Cisco powers the surveillance and networking systems that enable both Israel’s illegal and unjustified occupation of Palestine, and ICE’s brazen and unjustified kidnappings and illegal deportation of immigrants in the United States. If it’s ICE now, who’s next?

I am morally opposed to Cisco’s extensive business ties with the Israeli military, and equally appalled by Cisco’s contracts with ICE here in the United States. I cannot sit silently while my tax dollars and labor serve global perpetrators of oppression, in violation of international law.

Cisco-powered networks form the backbone of Israel’s surveillance and control infrastructure, employed by a government whose openly-admitted intention is the elimination and destruction of all Palestinian people. Cisco has joined other Big Tech companies that are eager to capture every market opportunity, regardless of the purposes towards which their technologies are employed.

Cisco is well aware of the ongoing human rights violations that it is enabling. In April 2024, along with other Cisconian colleagues, I addressed CEO Chuck Robbins and Cisco’s Executive Leadership Team to raise concerns that Cisco knowingly provides Israel with technology to perpetrate grave human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

These illegal business relationships present a serious legal and fiduciary risk to the company, particularly in light of the International Court of Justice’s three legally binding rulings relating to Israel’s plausible genocide in Gaza, as well as the ICJ’s July 19 Advisory Opinion affirming Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid system.

A group of 1770 concerned Cisconians raised this issue internally to Cisco’s Executive Leadership Team in an Open Letter that is now publicly available. This Open Letter asked Cisco to divest from business ties that violate Cisco’s own Code of Business Conduct. We were met with silence and denial of wrongdoing, despite clear evidence that Cisco is knowingly enabling Israel’s war crimes.

I thought long and hard about making this post. It breaks my heart that such a great company, with such high-caliber people, has chosen profit over human rights, especially after the International Court of Justice found plausible evidence that Israel is guilty not just of genocide — but of premeditated genocide.

I myself heard this evidence, presented at a 4-hour teach-in for World Holocaust Remembrance Day. This event took place on January 27, 2024 at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where experts from the United Nations reviewed Israel’s actions over many decades, in depth, in light of the International Court of Justice’s rulings.

The warring factions are reflected internally as well, creating a climate of fear and hostility, accompanied by official denials and deflections. Cisco is striving mightily to suppress honest dialogue and disregard international law to protect its lucrative stake in Israel’s illegal occupation and system of apartheid.

This Letter from a Concerned Cisconian from a fellow Cisconian provides extensive background and references for Cisco workers concerned about their labor being exploited in support of a pariah state run by war criminals.

Cisco employees can still sign the Open Letter here. Non-Cisco employees can sign the External Action on the same website.

For my Jewish colleagues and friends, let Jewish writings such as Peter Beinart’s new book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza be our guide and our moral compass. For all my colleagues, past and present, I hope that you will be moved to join me in taking action to acknowledge and protest the genocide unfolding in the full view of the entire world.

I want to be very clear. Cisco would be a great company if it had a better moral compass. I don’t have to hate the company itself to protest what it’s doing. I am forever grateful for my ThousandEyes teammates, and I am sorry for all of my colleagues at Cisco who are suffering the consequences of Israel’s unjustifiable occupation.

This Jewish person says: Free Palestine 🇵🇸 — for the sake of the oppressed and oppressor alike.

To view this reposted Open Letter with its original embedded links, please view the link below

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(c) 2025 Medium

https://medium.com/@bridge2humanity/jewish-employee-at-cisco-resigns-denounces-cisco-for-genocide-profiteering-and-ice-collaboration-ffd2db852212