news.ycombinator.com• Sep 10, 2025• 1 min read
Ask HN: Has the Gaza war affected the HN crowd?I'm curious whether others in the HN community have felt ripple effects from the Gaza war—either directly or indirectly.In Israel, the war has triggered a noticeable academic brain drain, with foreign students and collaborators pulling back from Israeli institutions (Haaretz). In tech, the impact has been even more pronounced: thousands of workers have relocated abroad, especially to the U.S., and investment in Israeli startups has dropped sharply. Some VCs now require Israeli companies to incorporate outside Israel to mitigate perceived risks (Calcalist).At the same time, there's growing tension within global tech companies. Internal protests—especially at firms like Google and Microsoft—have raised questions about how Israeli professionals are perceived, and whether political affiliations or national origin are starting to affect hiring, collaboration, or workplace culture. Google recently fired 28 employees after a sit-in protest over its cloud contract with Israel (The Verge), and
