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Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

theguardian.com

201–210 of 894 posts

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#202
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The op did not say Jews, he said Israelis. Apparently a poll by Haaretz found that 47% of respondents wanted to "kill every man, woman, and child in Gaza." 87% wanted complete expelsure of all Palestinians. So, the op is not quite right to say majority explicitly want to kill children, but regardless, it is frankly gross that you heard a criticism of a nation and immediately jumped to islamophobia. https://www.haaret…

For what it's worth, I agree about the Islamophobia. However, the OP in question does have a consistent track record of collectively blaming Jews (particularly whichever ones they think are Ashkenazi) for everything going on in Israel (which, notably, is not majority Ashkenazi). Their adjacent response reflects this.

(It's sad that I have to say this, but to ensure that my position on I/P is clear: Israel is committing war crimes and is currently litigating a campaign that isn't justifiable on strategic much less basic humanitarian terms.)

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#203
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right of return for all Palestinians and their descendants, worldwide.

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, here, that would have the stench of colonialism about it. It's not their land to 'return to' - after all, people already live there and they have no moral right to displace them.

Imagine you kill my dad, steal his house and turn me out into the street; you get convicted and sent to jail and your son gets to keep the house.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#204
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a funny way to say "they fired staff that vandalized company property, broke into the CEO's office, and used an internal company website to publish and promote anti-company propaganda". That will get you fired from bussing tables or washing dishes, let alone a six-figure job at MS. Edit: Source on the last one; the first two were widely reported on in media: https://lunduke.substack.com/p/fired-microsoft-emplo…

Source?

I would also like to read the source for the last claim of that statement. The break-in is well established in multiple sources, and also documented on Wikipedia (citing one of those sources). CNBC also add that they planted microphones (using phones) as listening devices.

"In the aftermath of the protests, Smith claimed that the protestors had blocked people out of the office, planted listening devices in the form of phones, and refused to leave until they were removed by police. " (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/28/microsoft-fires-two-employee...)

Protestors (in associated with the firing) also projected "Microsoft powers genocide" on the office wall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft).

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#205
post #97

The issue that people have with Israel's actions is the death of civilians, not the death of Hamas, the widely recognised terrorist. I believe it also to be true that the IDF do not want to kill civilians, and that their target is only Hamas. In which case, is it prudent to remove the IDF's ability to successfully target the correct people? Precise military intelligence is absolutely necessary for minimising civilian…

Evidence indicates the intention is to kill indiscriminately, hence the genocide determinations.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Now imagine this scenario and ignore everything else that’s happened for the last 60-70 years and oh yeah, don’t mention the current genocide.”

Let's not ignore the last 60-70 or even 1400 years. Israelis hit back hard. But they haven't been the ones to declare war on peaceful neighbors. It wasn't them who stood for thr München massacre or a number of plane hijackings in the 70ies. It wasn't Israelis who blew up buses in Gaza. Was it? We must stop confusing powerful with evil and currently helpless with "innocent".

If the powerful are genociding the helpless, then the powerful are evil. It doesn't matter who hit whom first.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#208
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other commenters are right, but I'll point out another fallacy you're pushing here. The current situation is like somebody commits a murder. Then the community rounds up a posse and goes out to kill the murderer. Then kill the murder's family, their neighbors, the residents of the next neighborhood over, raze the neighborhoods and then take all the land for themselves. Justice means penalizing the guilty parties, not…

But isn't that what Hamas did? Broke into homes and burned babies to death? Beheaded people? Pulled fetuses from pregnant women? Shoot up clinics and murder the entire staff and patients?

Nothing Hamas has done justifies what Israel is doing to Palestinian civilians, because collective punishment is a war crime. "But they did it first" is not a valid excuse, especially when trying to excuse mass starvation and bombing population centers.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#209
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[edited to remove snark] there is a ton of evidence to the contrary, that the killing of civilians is intentional and systematic. that's why the ICC (finally) determined it is a genocide.

The ICC did no such thing, you're probably thinking of the ICJ, which also did no such thing according to one of the judges that ruled on that decision: “I’m glad I have a chance to address that because the court’s test for deciding whether to impose measures uses the idea of plausibility. But the test is the plausibility of the rights that are asserted by the applicant, in this case South Africa” she told the BBC sh…

It is interesting to me that all this sweat and tears are spent deliberating over the use of a word in faraway courts while all of us can see with our eyes the horrors Palestinians are subjected to by the occupying IDF. "We didn't say there was a genocide! We acknowledged the plausibility of the possibility that potentially maybe an investigation might perhaps occur into the possibility of maybe Palestinians being able to experience a genocide by someone."

It reminds me of a conversation I had with an Israeli a few weeks back. He asked me, "if what Israel is doing is so bad, why does nobody stop it?"

A great question. I don't know. And the bodies of children continue to pile up.

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