Anti-Israel activists pressure Microsoft, Google and Amazon to boycott Israel

Leading tech companies – including Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Meta, and Amazon – are facing growing pressure to boycott Israel over accusations of the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies in the ongoing Gaza war. Some anti-Israel investors and tech employees argue that continued cooperation with Israel could damage the companies’ international reputations and organizational stability.

Bloomberg recently reported that approximately 60 Microsoft investors, holding a combined $80 million in shares, have called on the company to investigate claims of client misuse of its AI tools.

In May, Microsoft fired two engineers who were actively disturbing the tech company’s 50th anniversary event. 

“How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” the employee Joe Lopez said at the event while interrupting Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella’s speech. Another unnamed employee chanted “Free Palestine!” at the event. 

Microsoft has publicly acknowledged in May that it had provided emergency support in the Israeli efforts to locate the hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Hover, the tech giant denied that its technology had been misused against civilians.

“We do occasionally provide special access to our technologies beyond the terms of our commercial agreements. In addition to the commercial relationship with the IMOD (Israel Ministry of Defense), Microsoft provided limited emergency support to the Israeli government in the weeks following October 7, 2023, to help rescue hostages. We provided this help with significant oversight and on a limited basis, including approval of some requests and denial of others. We believe the company followed its principles on a considered and careful basis, to help save the lives of hostages while also honoring the privacy and other rights of civilians in Gaza,” Microsoft said at the time. 

The United Nations has played a leading role in fueling global anti-Israel sentiment through highly politicized reports that deliberately misrepresent the reality in Israel and Gaza. Last month, the anti-Israel UN rapporteur on Palestinian rights, Francesca Albanese, authored a report accusing Google, Microsoft, and Amazon of aiding Israel’s “ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza.”

Albanese who has a history of antisemitism, has repeatedly demonized Israel including comparing the Jewish state with Nazi Germany while whitewashing Hamas’ crimes against Israeli civilians as “resistance.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that the United States would sanction Albanese due to her antisemitism and embrace of terrorism. 

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, recently urged employees to “be careful citing transparently antisemitic” UN sources – a likely reference to Francesca Albanese and other controversial UN officials. Brin, who is Jewish and whose family experienced antisemitism in the former Soviet Union, emphasized that “throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides.”

The claim that Israel uses AI against civilians in Gaza is not supported by verifiable evidence. Available information suggests a different picture. The Israeli military has been using AI facial recognition technology to identify specific terrorists and thereby minimize civilian casualties in the densely populated Gaza Strip. 

Known as the “Start-Up Nation,” Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading tech centers outside Silicon Valley, California. Pundits do not believe that the current anti-Israel campaign will succeed in implementing a boycott as previous attempts have been rejected by tech giants like Nvidia and Amazon.