Eynat Guez, the founder and CEO of Papaya Global, announced Thursday morning that she will take all of the company's financing out of Israel following Netanyahu's words Wednesday night at a press conference in which he insisted that his coalition's judicial reforms will continue. Guez chalked her decision up to economic "uncertainty" in the country in light of the legal reforms of the Justice Minister, Yariv Levin. The Israeli human resources and payroll software company is the first to announce such drastic steps.
In a tweet that she published on Twitter, Guez wrote in Hebrew that "following Prime Minister Netanyahu's statements that he is determined to pass reforms that will harm democracy and the economy, we have made a business decision at Papaya Global to withdraw all of the company's funds from Israel. In the reform that is taking shape, there is no certainty that we can conduct international economic activity while based in Israel, this is a painful but necessary business step."
Papaya Global announced it would withdraw its funds from Israel due to the judicial reform being advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuhttps://t.co/drOJrsDA97
— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) January 26, 2023
At a demonstration against the Judicial reforms held on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, in which more than 120,000 people participated, Guez spoke and emphasized: "A 'Startup Nation' without democracy? It cannot exist. It is not too late. Millions of eyes in the world are now directed toward Israel; we will not give in to anyone. We must bring Israel back, the court cannot be paralyzed, equality cannot be harmed and the democracy we built here together cannot be crushed."
The head of the opposition, MK Yair Lapid responded to Guez's statement and wrote on his Twitter account that Prime Minister Netanyahu is "weak and leading us to an economic disaster". The chairman of the Labor party MK Merav Michaeli added to Lapid’s tweet and said "the downhill slope has begun. Netanyahu is speeding and taking Israel with him into the abyss."
such an ugly wh$re.
— Maya Hoffman🇮🇱 (@MayaHoffman7) January 26, 2023
First pay your debt to society before stealing money from them.
Pay back the cost of your education, and the financial help you got from Israel to start your company.
I hope all israeli patriots boycott papaya global and you https://t.co/vL2LR6vCc6
The continued outrage over the new government comes after Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich held a press conference Wednesday night after the Bank of Israel's head, Professor Amir Yaron, warned about the international consequences of the reforms in the judicial system.
Papaya Global moving all money out of Israel – https://t.co/77yJKFclyQ
— GlobesEnglish (@GlobesEnglish) January 26, 2023
The Prime Minister emphasized that contrary to what Yaron and other senior economic figures said, the reform is actually expected to strengthen the Israeli economy. "I hear concerns about the impact of the legal reform on our economic strength, I want to set things straight - the truth is exactly the opposite," Netanyahu said. "Our measures will not harm the economy, but rather it will strengthen it."
