An interview with Tom Hall

Today, Tech for Palestine (T4P) supports dozens of projects and a growing global community. But none of that happened by accident. Behind the scenes, there are people building, connecting, and keeping everything moving forward. Tom Hall, Director of Incubation, is one of the key people behind that. So we sat down with him to understand how it all started and how it grew.

Can you describe what T4P is in your own words?

"T4P is a community that believes all people, including Palestinians, deserve freedom and self-determination. It is ann incubator for projects ranging from activism and advocacy to education and material support for Palestinian people, and one small but active part of a much larger (and older) movement."

Why was T4P started?

T4P was started because Paul Biggar wrote a blog post condemning the unfolding genocide in Gaza, and a group of people in the tech industry read the post and responded by reaching out to him with ideas for anti-genocide and "pro-Palestine" intiatives.

What's the moment you realized T4P was actually making a difference?

Probably the first time was when I met a couple of doctors with Doctors Against Genocide at the People's Conference for Palestine in Detroit, and they told me they were big fans of Boycat. Boycat had some good traction before joining our incubator but it was the first project we brought in and I like to think we had some small part in helping it become virtually a household name, at least in the movement. If memory serves it was T4P that connected Boycat's founder, Adil, to the BDS National Committee, which went on to adopt Boycat as the official BDS app.

Boycat is just one of many T4P projects making an impact. Explore the rest here.