Who is Kenneth Ballenegger? San Francisco venture capitalist gets fired from firm he co-founded over his Gaza sterlization tweets
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: A venture capitalist was sacked with immediate effect from the firm he co-founded after he shared a post on social media that said Israel was “warranted” to “handle Gaza” by setting up “education camps [and] sterilizations,” reports New York Post.
Kenneth Ballenegger, a founding partner at San Francisco VC firm Oyster Ventures, wrote on X over the weekend, "After the war, Israel should handle Gaza like China handles Xinjiang. Full surveillance state. Re-education camps. Sterilizations.”
“It’s warranted and the only way to pacify the jihad population,” he added, according to screenshots of the post shared by pro-Israel organization Stop Zionist Hate on Monday, November 13, after Ballenegger’s X account was set to private.
Words mean nothing. By not removing @kob from your team, you are condoning his rhetoric. https://t.co/adrnuDpYzM pic.twitter.com/3cvty0okIR
— Stop Zionist Hate (@StopZionistHate) November 13, 2023
Kenneth Ballenegger posed another offensive post moments later
Ballenegger fired off another offensive post moments later that read, "They reproduce like rabbits and raise them to be terrorists, creating more poverty misery, and terrorism. Why should we allow that. The world would be a much better place if they didn’t reproduce.”
What did Kenneth Ballenegger's fellow co-founding partner say after the incident?
Sophia Liao, Ballenegger’s fellow co-founding partner at Oyster, moved subtly to distance herself from her colleague, sharing a statement on X that said, "I’ve reached out to him directly to explain this and his immediate removal from the firm. I want to be unequivocally clear: his statement was appalling,” Liao wrote.
She also noted that Oyster’s entire leadership team decided to “remove Kenneth Ballenegger as a partner in the firm.”
“This process will take time, but please be assured that Kenneth has been suspended immediately and these proceedings are underway,” Liao added in comments that were earlier reported on by Business Insider.
Liao continued, “On a personal note, as someone who survived and grew up under China’s one-child policy, it’s awful to see such a callous comparison made between such complex political environments. This perspective makes Kenneth’s choice of words even more distressing to me. I’ve reached out to him directly to explain this and his immediate removal from the firm.”
Oyster Ventures has reportedly invested in unicorn tech companies
Oyster Ventures has apparently invested in unicorn tech companies including e-commerce startup Bolt, online learning platform Masterclass, and gaming software company Conductive.AI, according to Dealroom. It also seems that Oyster’s website has been down as of Tuesday, November 14, as the company’s URL displays an error message.
Multiple companies have fired employees over hateful remarks related to the Israel-Gaza war
Multiple companies in the banking and tech sectors have axed employees over offensive remarks related to the Israel-Gaza war.
Last month Citibank fired banker Nozima Husainova after she wrote, "No wonder why Hitler wanted to get rid of all of them” alongside a smiley-face emoji on her Instagram Story.
Husainova shared the remarks with her 4,500 followers in response to a post about the Gaza hospital bombing that was initially blamed on Israel but was later revealed to have been caused by the Islamic militant group after its operatives misfired a rocket. The bank called Husainova’s remarks “revolting” and “antisemitic.”
An Apple employee was also ousted for taking to Instagram to condemn “Zionists” for being “murderers and thieves.” Natasha Dach was removed from Apple’s employee directory earlier this month after writing of Zionists, "You sneak into countries, steal peoples lives, jobs, homes, streets, push them, bully them, torture them.”
