Is Israel’s War on Israel Evil? Human Rights, Intelligence, and AI: A Call for Microsoft to renounce its ties with genocide

At the time of writing, Israel has resumed its full-scale genocide in Gaza, which has so far killed by some estimates over 300,000 Gazans in the past 1.5 year alone. Just days ago, it was revealed that Israel killed fifteen paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza, executing them “one by one,” before burying them in the sand — yet another horrific war crime. All the while, our “responsible” AI work powers this surveillance and murder. Arrest warrants for Israeli leaders have been given by the International Criminal Court, because they concluded that this is a genocide.

Whether you work on AI or not, you will be complicit if you do nothing. Our job now is to take a vocal stand against the crimes against humanity committed by Microsoft.

An Israeli intelligence officer who works with the systems told us that the Israeli military uses Microsoft azure to create information from mass surveilling and translate it into hundreds of different languages. Israel has in-house targeting systems.

In fact, Microsoft is so deeply connected to the Israeli military that it was just yesterday designated one of the priority boycott targets of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) campaign.

Regardless of your political stances, is this the legacy we want to leave behind? Is working on deadly AI weapons something you can tell your children about? Do we want to be on the wrong side of history?

Work that is unrelated to the cloud will still benefit the company, because it allows it to take on the contract. Regardless of your team, you serve a company that is arming the Israeli occupation. It is undeniable that part of your compensation, no matter how small, is being paid by genocide.

This is the reason I signed this important petition to demand that Microsoft eliminate their ties with genocide. I urged you all to do the same.

Sign the petition, because we will not write code that kills. And join the campaign to add your voice to the growing number of concerned Microsoft employees.

Join me in showing our discontent in this thread. If you feel tricked into playing a role in the deployment of weapons that target children and civilians, urge the leader to get rid of the contracts.

Know that Microsoft’s human rights statement prohibits retaliation against anyone who raises a human rights-related concern:

Human rights statement | Microsoft CSR

I disrupted the speech of Microsoft founder Bill Gates during the 50th anniversary celebration, as you can see from the livestream. Here’s why.

Like most, I joined Microsoft believing in its mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” I believed it committed to respecting and promoting human rights. I thought that Microsoft was committed to promoting rights around the world.

I know that leaving Microsoft is not an option for many. I urge you to hold Microsoft accountable to its own values and mission if you have to continue working at Microsoft.