A Tech Week hackathon organizer's decision to bar an Israeli applicant over his past military service has ignited a dispute this week over discrimination after screenshots of the exchange circulated on X.
According to posts shared on X, Mostapha Benhenda, one of the event's organizers, informed hackathon participant Adam Levi that his spot had been revoked. In a message reviewed by Israel Hayom, Benhenda wrote, "Hi Adam, your participation to the hackathon couldn't be validated for security reasons. Thank you for your understanding."
Turns out shabat dinners is the only place we can get accepted to in sf pic.twitter.com/aHnNXtvD6u
— Adam Levi (@realAdamLevi) September 29, 2026
When Levi pressed for details, asking "What security reasons?", Benhenda responded by referencing last year's deadly pager and walkie-talkie attacks attributed to Israel inside Lebanon. Citing the presence of electronics at the event, he replied, "Hackathon participants carry pagers, smartphones and laptops, and we don't want the IGF ["Israel Genocide Forces," a critical term used to refer to the IDF] to make these electronic devices explode in their faces and injure them. What happened in Lebanon shouldn't happen in California. The safety of our community comes first."
Adam, you still served in Unit 8200 during the explosive pager attack in Lebanon.
There's no way to know you weren't involved, since your activities are classified. https://t.co/faWeqCkYme pic.twitter.com/UPMCremFA7— Mostapha Benhenda (@Mostaphabenh) September 30, 2026
Benhenda went on to note the hackathon's diverse makeup, adding that "a lot of Lebanese and Palestinian citizens are participating in the hackathon, and we take their security very seriously."
The excluded participant, identified as Adam Levi, had served in the IDF's Unit 8200, the IDF's signals intelligence branch, according to information provided to Israel Hayom.
Backlash followed swiftly once the exchange surfaced online. Canadian-Israeli geopolitical and national-security commentator Daniel Sorek, posting on X under the handle @DanSorek, accused the organizers of unlawful bias.
He urged others to intervene, writing, "As someone else has noted, this is very possibly a case of legal discrimination. Please help Adam if you can. And to the organizers, if you're worried about your participants being blown up by their pagers, I have news for you: Your bigger concern should be contact with members of a foreign terrorist organization. Not saying that everyone who has certain views is part of an FTO but this is such an absurd response to Adam topped off with the meek and dry language of 'thank you for your understanding.'"
Amid the fallout, the account for Tech Week, the broader event series under which the hackathon had been listed, distanced itself from the organizers, posting on X, "FYI - this event has been removed from the Tech Week calendar for violating our TOS."
FYI - this event has been removed from the Tech Week calendar for violating our TOS
— Tech Week (@Techweek_) September 29, 2026
Benhenda, however, defended his decision in subsequent posts, framing his choice as a matter of communal safety rather than bias. Linking to unrelated video footage, he wrote, "Here's what Adam's affiliation did in Lebanon, and that shouldn't happen in San Francisco. Ensuring community safety is paramount in the Tech Week, I just did my job."
Pressed further over which policy had actually been breached, Benhenda maintained his position in a follow-up post, insisting the exclusion was rooted in risk assessment rather than identity, stating, "Which TOS? Adam was declined due to the security risk, as a member of an organization that recently carried out attacks using electronic devices. People of all backgrounds and faiths are welcome."
Another X post by an individual named Ali backs up Benhenda's claims, as he writes, "Adam, who is Israeli and also worked as an Israeli spy at Unit 8200 from February 2024 to October 2025, is trying to stir up controversy over why he was rejected from a hackathon (he took part in the genocide in Gaza). He was rejected based on real security concerns, but now he is playing the antisemitism card."
Adam, who is Israeli and also worked as an Israeli spy at Unit 8200 from February 2024 to October 2025, is trying to stir up controversy over why he was rejected from a hackathon (he took part in the genocide in Gaza). He was rejected based on real security concerns, but now he… https://t.co/Hc2lhHYI2z pic.twitter.com/qOrJGcVpwK
— Ali (@MerruX) September 29, 2026
Neither Levi nor Tech Week organizers had issued a further statement at the time of this report, and posts on X detailing the organizers' rationale remain the only account of the incident publicly available.
