Live data from Hacker News

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

theguardian.com

611–620 of 894 posts

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

#611

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…

Leaving Quatar aside, because seriously that puzzles everyone including me: what half a dozen countries are you referring to?

Somehow everyone is forgetting the Six Day War and who the aggressors were. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War

Or that after they got soundly defeated, Israel was nice enough to give back a lot of their lost territory.

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

#612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel claims that they “don’t want to kill civilians” but historically have not substantially changed course when the killings became grotesquely excessive. It’s also arguably true that they have never even sincerely investigated any issues. Israel just gets more aggressive in the murder and bombing.

[flagged]

[deleted]

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

#614
My first reaction was "good on Microsoft". Then I read how it was only after a Guardian report exposed this was happening that MSFT took action. They were perfectly content to provide the services so long as it wasn't widely known.

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

#615
post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Great. So if you support Hamas you support everything that comes after. Actions have consequences.

The comment is a complete non sequitur to what it's replying to. I don't even understand what you're trying to say here.

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

#616
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> This war that European Jews started in 1948 when they decided to attack and invade Palestine spans 2 continents, and more if you include the various attacks elsewhere. This is extremely ignorant. Jews have lived in Israel continuously for 3000 years. The modern Zionist migration, which started in the late 19th century (far from the first such movement for the Jews, and far from the last we've seen globally for all…

Thank you. Although I have no personal interest in the outcomes of this conflict, it is astounding to see how these basic historical facts are not only unknown to so many people who hold strong opinions on the Israel-Gaza conflict, but also outright denied. I guess this must also be how Holocaust denialism was ever a thing.

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

#617
Looks like the contracts are not going to AWS or Google but to Nebius (founded by Volozhin, who founded of Yandex).

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nebius-to-build-a...

"Google and Amazon, both of which already hold the $1.2 billion Nimbus contract with the Israeli government, originally received a preliminary tender for the supercomputer but ultimately withdrew from contention."

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

#618

I guess time to buy more Oracle or Google stocks? They can easily provide more than needed, especially Oracle which is very friendly to Israel and Ellison is a big supporter of IDF (large donations to "Friends of the IDF" non-profit). Here is a link in case anyone wants to donate https://www.fidf.org to this amazing organization.

Wow nice, I wish i could donate, but US Taxpayers already cover for me. What do the donors get? Like souvenirs? Funding Genocidal ITF to kill more children and bomb more hospitals has to have its perks.

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

#619
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

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…

> Justice means penalizing the guilty parties, not everyone in their geographical/social group. Your definition of Justice is leaky.

I disagree. Your definition of justice inadvertently prevents justice. Holding Hamas accountable for the thousands of rocket attacks and the mass murder / mutilation / rape of October 7 means hunting down all of them, getting rid of their weapons, and freeing hostages. You can only do so with some degree of collateral damage since they’re hiding in civilian populations.

But also, “civilian” is debatable. It’s this same population that voted for Hamas despite their charter explicitly calling for religious genocide. It’s the same population that supports Hamas even after the mass murder / mutilation / rape of October 7, according to multiple polls. It’s the same population that has so many times turned a blind eye to the actions of Hamas.

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

#620
post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one could easily have said that Nazi Germany had greatly increased legitimate surveillance needs after they invaded Poland This is an interesting comparison—thank you. That said, did the Poles launch cross-border attacks on German civilians? The closest I can come up with is Bloody Sunday [1], which was an attack on ethnically German civilians, but not a cross-border incursion. (Granted, we can only observe this ex…

Why would being cross-border matter when the entire land was previously Palestinian land before being handed over by colonial powers and then "won" in subsequent "wars" (read: massacres) on the barely-armed villagers living there? The Viet Cong, South Africa's ANC, the Suffragettes and civil rights movements all used violence for their causes. Hamas was established in 1984, by the generation that had grown up with th…

> Why would being cross-border matter when the entire land was previously Palestinian

That's how borders work. (Anything else is, by definition, a border dispute.) If the Armia Krajowa had bulldozed into Lithuania on the logic that they lost it due to foreign meddling, they would have tarnished their record. (Despite the claim being true.)

> Viet Cong, South Africa's ANC, the Suffragettes and civil rights movements all used violence for their causes

On their own turf. And as for the former, against military targets--nobody serious in the Viet Cong or USSR was plotting Al Qaeda-style attacks on the American homeland.

October 7th was a terrorist attack. It was plotted like a military operation. But so was 9/11.

> would you be as careful to keep your resistance peaceful?

Not particularly. But I'd want to be fighting an actual resistance. 7 October attack was a strategic failure. The only reason it might end in a draw is because Netanyahu surrounded himself with maniacs. Even then, permanent damage has been done to the viability of a sovereign Palestine.

(There is also a massive difference between something being understandable and something being justified.)

Post reply on HN