←back to thread

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

(www.theguardian.com)
873 points helsinkiandrew | 7 comments | 25 Sep 25 15:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.013s | source | bottom
Show context
pbiggar ◴[25 Sep 25 15:34 UTC] No.45374050[source]▶
There was an interesting point in the earlier article on this, where Microsoft tried to push their Israeli employees under a bus. They claimed their Israeli employees had lied to them about the use of Azure for war and civilian harm because they held more allegiance to their army than to Microsoft.

Now obviously, this was a lie, but the implication is staggering: Microsoft can't trust it's own employees in Israel, and believes they're lying to the mothership! And if microsoft can't trust them, surely no one else should either!

replies(3): >>45374092 #>>45374176 #>>45379053 #
1. Aeolun ◴[25 Sep 25 16:00 UTC] No.45374464[source]▶
some muslims believe it is acceptable to kill children. These are individuals.

The israeli democratically elected government feels it is acceptable to children, and has, for the past two years employed a campaign of systematic destruction against the palestinian children.

The majority of citizens agree with this. That’s… I don’t know how to describe it.

replies(1): >>45374973 #
2. woodruffw ◴[25 Sep 25 16:31 UTC] No.45374973{3}[source]▶
I think a significantly more parsimonious explanation is that Israel is an extremely flawed democracy, and that its political leadership (namely Netanyahu) are not directly accountable to the public will.

Polling in Israel appears to reflect this[1].

This is a recurring theme in MENA politics: even the most democratically "colored" countries in the region consistently put political preservation over long team regional interests. Israel's recent version of this is arguably the most despicable in terms of outcomes, but it's not particularly unique.

[1]: https://www.timesofisrael.com/breaking-with-pm-74-of-israeli...

3. komali2 ◴[25 Sep 25 16:34 UTC] No.45375017[source]▶
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.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-05-28/ty-article-ma...

replies(2): >>45375147 #>>45375291 #
4. dotancohen ◴[25 Sep 25 16:41 UTC] No.45375147{3}[source]▶
Can I get a link to that article? Thanks.
5. woodruffw ◴[25 Sep 25 16:49 UTC] No.45375291{3}[source]▶
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.)

replies(1): >>45375969 #
6. komali2 ◴[25 Sep 25 17:27 UTC] No.45375969{4}[source]▶
Ah, I hadn't seen that. Gross.

It's bizarre to me to see people litigating ethno religious debate on this tech forum. The continued existence of racism into the 21st century baffles me. It's so obviously irrational to be racist I'm especially surprised to see it represented here.

7. dang ◴[25 Sep 25 19:22 UTC] No.45377645{3}[source]▶
> Jews have a hatred of Muslims

Wtf? You can't post like this here, and we've banned this account.

I suppose I'd better add that yes, we have banned accounts for posting the reverse as well. Religious flamewar is not allowed here, regardless of which religion people have a problem with. Neither is using HN primarily for political/ideological and/or nationalistic battle, which this account has been doing egregiously—enough so that I'm surprised we didn't ban it earlier.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html