By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A Jewish former employee of Intel has resolved his lawsuit accusing the chipmaker of firing him after he complained about an openly antisemitic supervisor, the former employee’s lawyer said on Thursday.
Lawyers for Intel and the anonymous plaintiff John Doe, a former vice president of engineering and onetime Israel Defense Forces soldier, dismissed the case in a joint filing in Manhattan federal court.
Doe’s legal team included the Anti-Defamation League, in that group’s first lawsuit against a major Fortune 500 company targeting antisemitism in the workplace.
The dismissal is with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be brought again.
In an email, Doe’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor said “the matter has been resolved.” The ADL had no immediate comment. Intel, its lawyers, and lawyers for other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the August 2024 complaint, Intel fired Doe last April in a purported cost-cutting move not long after assigning him to report to Alaa Badr, vice president of customer success and an Egyptian native.
Doe said he was uncomfortable working with Badr, citing Badr’s support for anti-Israel online posts, including posts cheering deaths of Israelis and IDF soldiers, and complaining about “so many Israeli employees in our company.”
Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, has said it has a longstanding culture of diversity and inclusion, and does not tolerate hate speech.
Doe had asked to maintain his anonymity, because revealing his name could lead to harassment and physical violence, but a judge rejected that request in October.
The judge said the emotionally and politically charged nature of the case, and risk of further discrimination, did not overcome “the people’s right to know who is using their courts.”
Doe had been appealing that decision.
The case is Doe v Intel Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 24-06117.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Richard Chang and Sonali Paul)
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