As I write this piece, an Israeli airstrike has hit makeshift tents near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, burning tents and people alive. The Israeli military bombed an aid distribution point in Jabalia, wounding 50 casualties who were waiting for flour. The entire north of Gaza has been besieged by the Israeli Occupying Forces for the past 10 days, trapping 400,000 Palestinians without food, drink, and medical supplies. Every day since last October, Israel, with the help of its western allies, intensifies its assault on Palestine, each time pushing the boundaries of what is comprehensible. There are no moral or legal boundaries Israel, and its allies, will not cross. The systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which has been the basis of the settler-colonial Zionist project since its inception, has accelerated since 7th October 2023. From Palestine to Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, Israel and its allies continue their violence with impunity. Meanwhile, mainstream western news media are either silent in their reporting or complicit in abetting the ongoing destruction of the Palestinian people and the resistance.
Simultaneously, tech companies continue to be deeply complicit in the ongoing genocide. In this piece, Marwa Fatafta outlines and interrogates the ways in which tech companies such as Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google are facilitating and contributing to the relentless mass slaughter and destruction in Gaza.
Instagram and X continue to censor and suppress Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices on a global level, while spreading disinformation and incitement to violence against Palestinians. Amazon and Google’s Project Nimbus continues to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing services, AI, and machine learning capabilities. In March this year, Google signed a new contract with the Israeli military, allowing “multiple units” access to Googleʼs automation technologies. Through various initiatives, Microsoft provides the occupation’s government with services that have been reported to support illegal settlement operations, the Israeli police, military, and prison services. Booking.com continues to facilitate bookings on illegal Israeli settlements.
These tech companies generate profit from war and longstanding human rights violations, including the occupation and destruction of Palestine, and also, for example, in the Eastern and Southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Apple, Tesla, Samsung, Huawei all rely on exploiting and killing people for coltan and cobalt, materials used for all our devices, from laptops and computers to smartphones and EVs. These companies, alongside western governments, repeatedly ignore and violate international law, including in the Netherlands, where we are, and where the ICJ and ICC are situated. The irony and hypocrisy of western imperial powers and the “international rules-based order” are not lost on us.
Despite these horrors, the resistance on the ground in Gaza, Palestine and globally persists by all possible means. We support the call to SHUT DOWN TECH for Palestine and Lebanon on 24th October 2024. Demand boycotts, divestments and sanctions from your governments, workplaces, and universities. Find your local direct action organisation. Get involved with No Tech for Apartheid, Apples Against Apartheid, Meta Stop Censoring Palestine, and the Anticolonial Tech Collective.
See: Big Tech and the risk of genocide in Gaza: what are companies doing? at Access Now.
Image from the original post at Access Now.