The Palestinian human rights movement, BDS, focused on putting pressure on Israel to comply with international law by promoting boycotts, sales and sanctions against its economic partners, adding Microsoft and Xbox to its target list on April 7th.
“Microsoft is affiliated with Israel’s apartheid regime and its prison system,” an official statement from the Palestinian BDS National Committee explains. “We provide Israeli forces with central Azure Cloud and AI services to accelerate Israeli 2.3 million Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip. After 34 years of deep accomplices with the Israeli forces, the Israeli forces are heavily dependent on Microsoft, meeting the technical requirements of its genocide and Apolitheid regime.”
Microsoft employees Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal suspended the company’s 50th anniversary ceremony on April 4, confronting executives and denounced what they viewed as Microsoft’s brutal retaliation against Israeli Palestinians following the attack on October 7th.
“You care about using AI for good, but Microsoft claims that it sells AI weapons to the Israeli military,” Aboussad reportedly yelled at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during the protest. “50,000 people have died and Microsoft is bolstering this genocide in our area.”
The movement calls for “pressure Microsoft with sales and exclusion from the contract whenever feasible,” and offers the following options as a layer of engagement:
Inspired by South Africa’s anti-apartheid, the BDS was launched in 2005 by a group consisting of 170 unions, women’s organizations, professional organizations, popular resistance committees, and other Palestinian civil society organizations. Since then, they have launched several successful campaigns against Woolworths, Hewlett Packard and Eurovision. Other current targets include Reebok, Chevron and Cisco.
“By boycotting the Xbox brand, we are putting pressure on Microsoft to end Israeli genocide, occupation and apartheid accomplice against Palestinians,” the BDS movement’s statement concludes. “The Palestinians are urging everyone to boycott Microsoft’s Xbox and Microsoft Gaming products, as there are viable alternatives to the game. Genocide is not a game.”
