An Amazon Warehousing Services executive, Ruba Borno, has created a huge ruckus by wearing a pendant featuring Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza with a Palestinian flag. The video of Ruba Borno’s necklace was posted on the Instagram handle of Amazon Warehousing Services. Following a significant outcry, Amazon has deleted the video and plans to upload a new one.
Ruba Borno holds the position of Vice President of Specialists and Partners at AWS—Amazon’s cloud services for digital enterprises. She was promoting the Amazon conference in the controversial video, which was scheduled to take place this fall in Las Vegas.
Borno has held this position since 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile. Previously, she served as the full-time Senior Vice President at Cisco for six and a half years. Before her stint with Cisco, she worked with the Boston Consulting Group from 2008 to 2015. She also served as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and is currently a board member at Experian. She holds an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and completed her Ph.D. in 2008.
Netizens Call for a Boycott of Amazon Products After Ruba Borno’s Necklace Controversy
The video featuring Ruba Borno’s necklace was shared on social media and soon went viral for the wrong reasons. The pendant displayed the map of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in a way that negates the two-state solution to the problem and depicts a Palestinian country composed of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. The video drew fierce criticism, and there were even calls for a boycott of Amazon products.
However, an Amazon spokesperson, quoted by Media House New York Post, said, “The video shot was not meant to be a political statement, but we’ve taken down the video and will repost a new one in the coming days.”
Amazon employee Alexander Trupanov is one of the 101 hostages still held captive in Gaza and was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Numerous X users took to social media to express their anger and disappointment. Many users accused the Amazon executive of seeking the destruction of the Israeli state and establishing a Palestinian nation from the river to the sea.
An X commenter, Alex Wilner, wrote, “Vile. This is unacceptable and warrants immediate termination,” tagging Jeff Bezos, who is no longer the CEO of the company he established but remains the company’s largest shareholder.
