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Tariq Raouf
22 April, 2025
On April 4, Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
Amidst the revelry and celebration of its products, including AI, they were disrupted by two employees representing an organisation called No Azure For Apartheid, dedicated to revealing the truth behind that very same AI’s use in Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Their disruptions made waves globally, and The New Arab caught up with the founders of the employee movement, Hossam Nasr and Abdo Mohamed, as well as one of the disruptors, Vaniya Agrawal.
Both +972 Magazine and the Intercept describe how the Israeli military utilises AI and cloud-computing software from Amazon and Google to create programmes like “Lavender,” and “Where’s Daddy” — programmes that, in the early stages of the genocide, labelled a staggering 37,000 Palestinian civilians as suspected militants, tracking them so they can be targeted when they arrive at their home.
But it’s not just Amazon and Google that have provided Israel with the tools and infrastructure to make these human rights violations possible; it’s also Microsoft, more specifically, their cloud computing and AI software, Azure.
The Israeli military’s reliance on philanthropist Bill Gates’ Microsoft is so heavy that it’s used in all its major military sectors.
Leaked documents seen by +972 and DropSite News reveal that Azure is used by units in the air, ground and naval forces. Not only that, but it’s what the army uses to manage the population registry and movement of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, with a programme called “Rolling Stone.”
This kind of business goes directly against Microsoft’s global human rights statement: “Technology should be used for the good of humanity, to empower and protect everyone and to leave no one behind.”
It’s for this reason that Microsoft employees began to take a stand against their work being used for such atrocities and started an organisation called No Azure for Apartheid in late 2023.
Article continues:
22 April, 2025
On April 4, Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
Amidst the revelry and celebration of its products, including AI, they were disrupted by two employees representing an organisation called No Azure For Apartheid, dedicated to revealing the truth behind that very same AI’s use in Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Their disruptions made waves globally, and The New Arab caught up with the founders of the employee movement, Hossam Nasr and Abdo Mohamed, as well as one of the disruptors, Vaniya Agrawal.
AI-powered genocide
Recent reports have described the ongoing horrors in Gaza as “the first AI-powered genocide,” revealing how Israel has been able to enact such catastrophic damage in such a short amount of time.Both +972 Magazine and the Intercept describe how the Israeli military utilises AI and cloud-computing software from Amazon and Google to create programmes like “Lavender,” and “Where’s Daddy” — programmes that, in the early stages of the genocide, labelled a staggering 37,000 Palestinian civilians as suspected militants, tracking them so they can be targeted when they arrive at their home.
But it’s not just Amazon and Google that have provided Israel with the tools and infrastructure to make these human rights violations possible; it’s also Microsoft, more specifically, their cloud computing and AI software, Azure.
The Israeli military’s reliance on philanthropist Bill Gates’ Microsoft is so heavy that it’s used in all its major military sectors.
Leaked documents seen by +972 and DropSite News reveal that Azure is used by units in the air, ground and naval forces. Not only that, but it’s what the army uses to manage the population registry and movement of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, with a programme called “Rolling Stone.”
This kind of business goes directly against Microsoft’s global human rights statement: “Technology should be used for the good of humanity, to empower and protect everyone and to leave no one behind.”
It’s for this reason that Microsoft employees began to take a stand against their work being used for such atrocities and started an organisation called No Azure for Apartheid in late 2023.
Article continues:
