Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians • Hacker News Board

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

#601

Post by basilgohar » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:13 PM UTC

halflife wrote: post #528

basilgohar wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a delightful selection of specific incidents. In just the past two weeks Israel attacked a half dozen of its neighboring countries. Israel itself is a belligerent Western colony that has been ethnically cleansing Palestine since the 1940s. It is the obligation for an occupied people to resist their occupiers, and according to the UN that is up to and includes violent resistence. The entirety of Palestine has bee…

You know what, I just had to do a double take because your post is so stupid. Israel brought nothing to the region? Let’s review. Israel has the highest gdp by a great margin. Israel is an important exporter of technology to the world, be it cyber tech, water tech, agriculture tech or defense tech. Israel has the highest number of startups per capita in the world. Israel has more Nobel laureates than the entire rest…

Israel only survives as a vassal state of the US. Without US aid, political cover, and unconditional military support, they cannot exist. It is being made illegal to boycott Israel in the US, given them artificial economic advantages, and they receive a surprising amount of US government contracts especially in security and data related tech. They exploit the few remaining Palestinians for their own manual labor with unfair wages in their aparteid state.

All of what you said does nothing for the region as they continue to expand their own borders by stealing more and more land from their neighbors (they recently took MORE land from Syria as the new government took shape). Their achievements are marred by their vicious genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and increasingly genocidal behavior in the West Bank as well. Of course you'll economically prosper if you consider stealing and occupying a legitimate right of yours. They achieve all of this by bringing bloodshed and war to the region, which they call for from the US time and time again.

How many times has Bibi Netanyahu gone before Congress to pull the US into another war in the Middle East? The US foots the bill to weaken their neighbors so they stand out more. That's not an economic achievement to be proud of or boasting about.

They can have all the startups they want, but they have the worst human rights record of any country currently, with the largest number of condemnations in the UN of any other country but always vetoed by the US. When you don't have to worry about being judged the same as other countries, then you are free to develop your country without worry about petty things like human rights violations as long as Uncle Sam foots the security bill and sends over more contracts.

Israel and those who unconditionally support it are complicit in its genocide.

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

#602

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:14 PM UTC

holmesworcester wrote: post #598

lordofgibbons wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seriously equating observing an area using satellites with indiscriminately monitoring everyone's calls, messages, and possibly hacking their devices?

And not in a war zone, even. (West Bank is governed by Israel.)

The West Bank is occupied by Israel and Israel has overall control, but it is broken up into a whole bunch of tiny administrative regions, some of which are administered by the PA and some of which are administered directly by Israel.

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

#603

Post by SilverElfin » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:17 PM UTC

basilgohar wrote: post #359

halflife wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half a dozen? Let’s do inventory! Lebanon’s - hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel on oct 8th 2023 Iraq - fired rockets in solidarity of Gaza Yemen - fired rockets in solidarity of Gaza Syria - fired rockets in solidarity of Gaza Iran - fired the largest array of ballistic missiles to Israel after Israel bombed an consulate in Syria where Hamas and hezbolla were congregating Qatar - that’s the only country that di…

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

#604

Post by catigula » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:17 PM UTC

Joeboy wrote: post #331

catigula wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that isn't my general reaction to Hitler saying he killed Jews to make Europeans safer. My reaction is "what are you talking about, psycho murderer?" That's a good look, try that.

Perhaps we'll have to agree to differ, but I think American Jews being like "not in my name" sends a more politically effective message than "what are you talking about, psycho murderer?". tbf I'm not primarily interested in what's a good look.

I think we're stuck and have to agree to disagree but the message sent is at least indistinguishable from the message of a self-interested sociopathic community with no moral concerns beyond their own. When I do things I at least try to make it discernible from psychopathy.

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

#605

Post by Saline9515 » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:18 PM UTC

flyinglizard wrote: post #578

Saline9515 wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't started by the Palestinians. Israelis conduced ethnic cleansing operations against civilians to displace them, including biowarfare and well poisoning. It continues today, in Gaza and in the West Bank. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cast_Thy_Bread https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_expulsion_from_L...

The article you linked refers to events during the war of 1948, when Israel was already formalized. It's establishment up to that point was primarily based on lawful acquisition, not expulsion. When it turned to an all out war, then yes, expulsion took place.

Palestinians still owned most of the land... and buying land doesn't give you the right to rule over the peasants who till it. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Pa...

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

#606

Post by davidjeet » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:18 PM UTC

dunekid wrote: post #569

davidjeet wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proof? Or just what is convenient for you to believe? If anything, quite the opposite. Think about this logically - why the need for expensive surveillance if your chief goal was to annihilate a population?

>why the need for expensive surveillance if your chief goal was to annihilate a population A question suited for ITF and Netanyahu maybe? Ask them spend less. He gets to prolong this Genocide, then he gets to stay out of trial for his previous crimes. Maybe ITF is not in a hurry.

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

#607

Post by SilverElfin » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:19 PM UTC

basilgohar wrote: post #395

skinkestek wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Palestine" have declared themselves to be at war with Israel. Syria is at war with Israel since decades. Lebanon has been shooting rockets at Israel and preparing ground attacks. Yemen (or rather the Houtis) keep firing at Israel. Are these the examples you want to show about Israel being bad? Edit: Tunisia hasn't been attacked. The influencer convoy was attacked by their own flare and media claimed ot was a drone u…

Palestine has been illegally occupied by Israel since its inception. It is not AT WAR. It is resisting occupation. Israel has been the single most belligerent nation in the middle east, attacking and antagonizing their own so-called allies for its entire existence. Israel is responsible for attacking the British (King David Hotel), the US (USS Liberty), all of its neighbors, and even others more distant (Tunisia). It…

> They occupy lands that once belonged to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. They aspire to occupy far greater regions. They are not interested in peace, only on expanding their borders. They continue to build settlements on what little land people still call Palestine.

Palestine is a relatively recent term. Long before that, the ancestors of today’s Jews occupied this region. We’re talking about the literal Bronze Age. The land NEVER belonged to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, or Syria.

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

#608

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:21 PM UTC

jajuuka wrote: post #568

stale2002 wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing wrong with being seen or heard. Instead it is that being violently disruptive tends to lose you support. You are posing a false dilemma where the only thing a person can do to voice there opinion is to destroy or disrupt things. That's not true though. Instead you can simply voice your options. You can put out manifestos, publish articles in the newspaper, post to social media, or even talk to people…

If you think being violently disruptive loses you support you should look at any equality movement. I'm not posing a false dilemma, I'm saying that when peaceful means are not working then violence will follow. "A riot is the language of the unheard". The idea that everyone can just be convinced with a good argument is a nice fantasy but just never true in reality. You've also rigged the game since you can just dig i…

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

#609

Post by SilverElfin » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:21 PM UTC

Huntsecker wrote: post #228

skinkestek wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

1400 years ? it was a creation of the second world war, but anyway regarding neighbors you mean other than bombing iran, syria, yemen, lebanon I believe in all these cases israel attacked first and thats in the past 12months. I think your point was meant to be more that Israel has a right to defend its self and I think most people and countries would back Israel in that right if the response had been proportionate. i…

> it was a creation of the second world war

The modern state of Israel with its present borders were a creation of the Second World War. But if you go back in time to ~1000 BC, Jewish people occupied the entire region (much broader than just Israel), and they are the only surviving indigenous people of the region. This isn’t even controversial. Virtually all historians and scholars acknowledge this because there is literal physical evidence in the buildings at Temple Mount and elsewhere, which are all dated back to that time.

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

#610

Post by basilgohar » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 8:22 PM UTC

js212 wrote: post #449

basilgohar wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Jews are an ethnicity and are genetically the same. Even those from Europe and those from Muslim countries (who now live in Israel after getting kicked out of Muslim countries). Stop making stuff up. Ohhh and Muslims didn’t treat Jews “peacefully”. They were second class citizens and often massacred. Read some history.

No, Jews of today are ethnically quite diverse and have mixed significantly. There are several recognized heritages of Jews of today with known populations from North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, and also Europe. I don't deny the "Jewishness" of anyone, but say "The Jews" as if this covers all of them is wrong. There are huge swaths of Jews today that are anti-Zionist and consider Israel an abomination on religious grounds. That it is a religious goal to have a nation of Israel is a new idea driven by Christian Zionists more than Jewish ones and the political, areligious Jewish Zionists enjoy their support and will play any role to achieve their own goals. The recent newly emerging religious Jewish Zionists are a divergence from mainstream Judaism and a recent development that relies on a lot of creative interpretation and ignorance of Jewish religious texts.

And yes, Muslims and Jews lived over 1000 years far more peacefully than any time before. Jerusalem and the rest of the Palestine was at peace under Muslim rule except for the Crusades which, surprise, came from Europe.