Multinational tech firms from SAP to Intel to give Israeli workers wartime grant
Companies planning one-time cash payments to their employees to help them cope with financial hardships during the ongoing war with Hamas
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
German business software maker SAP is joining a handful of global tech giants in granting cash payments to their employees in Israel to help them cope with the challenges they are facing during the war with the Hamas terror group.
SAP announced on Wednesday that it will pay its employees living in communities close to the Gaza Strip or on the Lebanese border who were evacuated on the order of the Home Front Command a one-time grant of NIS 6,500 ($1,619) per family member. For example, a married SAP employee with two children will receive a grant of NIS 26,000. Employees who reside within the 40-kilometer radius of the Gaza border and have not been evacuated from their homes will be entitled to a one-time grant worth NIS 2,600 per family member.
More than 200,000 people have been displaced from communities along the southern and northern borders in the aftermath of the October 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, which killed over 1,400 people, a majority of them civilians, including babies, children and the elderly after some 3,000 terrorists burst into the country from the Gaza Strip by land, sea, and air.
Hamas and allied terrorist factions also dragged at least 243 hostages — including some 30 children — to Gaza.
Since the outbreak of the war, the Israeli army has called up more than 300,000 reservists – many of whom work in global tech companies – to join the fighting, vowing to eradicate the terror group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and has been targeting all areas where the group operates, while seeking to minimize civilian casualties.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life experienced by the State of Israel these past few weeks and express our deepest support for the afflicted families and individuals,” said SAP CEO Christian Klein.
The software maker has been operating its R&D center SAP Labs in Israel since 1998, employing some 900 developers, mostly at its headquarters in Ra’anana and at another center in Tel Aviv.
SAP has also committed to donate €250,000 to the Magen David Adom (MDA) and the Alon and Ella Association, which caters to the immediate needs of families from the Gaza border settlements. In addition, SAP together with its workers’ union have bought agricultural produce directly from farmers near the Gaza border worth hundreds of thousands of shekels, the firm said. The produce is donated to various aid associations and organizations assisting evacuees, as well as IDF soldiers.
US semiconductor giant Intel Corp. is said to be planning to financially assist its 12,000 employees in Israel with a one-time grant of $5,000, which will be paid at the end of November, according to reports in the Hebrew press.
“Your commitment to the company and its activities in the present and in the future – from the support you give to your friends who cannot work to the work you give despite the personal consequences you have suffered – is something that has not gone unnoticed,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger wrote in a letter to employees in Israel. “This grant is given as a sign of appreciation for that.”
Since entering Israel in 1974, Intel has invested more than $17 billion in the country and has established three R&D centers — in Haifa, Petah Tikva and Jerusalem — and a manufacturing plant in Kiryat Gat. Intel Israel in 2022 posted record exports of $8.7 billion, constituting 1.75% of Israel’s entire GDP and 5.5% of all Israeli tech exports.
US firm Salesforce will be paying its employees in Israel a grant of NIS 10,000, while those on army reserve duty will be entitled to a larger sum. The US cloud-based software firm, which has been operating in Israel since 2009, has 700 employees working at its offices in Nazareth, Petah Tikva and Tel Aviv.
US tech giant Oracle, which has been active in Israel for more than 20 years, is reportedly planning to pay its employees in Israel a special grant equivalent to an extra month’s salary. Oracle has 380 employees in Israel at two R&D sites, Petah Tikva and Beersheba, working on cutting-edge technologies including cloud, AI and other applications.
Similarly, Cisco Systems Inc., a US maker of networking software and hardware, will give a one-time grant of NIS 9,500 to each of its 800 employees in Israel, and those who are on reserve duty will get NIS 19,000. US gaming and computer graphics giant Nvidia is another multinational firm that has promised its Israeli employees financial assistance.
