Is AI technology supplied to the military being used to target journalists, medical workers and aid workers in Gaza?
Video still from Middle East Eye.
On April 7, the Associated Press reported: “Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration [at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington] to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers.”
While Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was speaking, one of the now-fired employees, software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad who was based at Microsoft’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto, shouted: “You claim that you care about using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
That article also notes: “An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon.”
And on January 23, The Guardian reported: “The Israeli military’s reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems surged during the most intensive phase of its bombardment of Gaza, leaked documents reveal.”
That article continued: “The leaked documents, which include commercial records from Israel’s defence ministry and files from Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary, suggest Microsoft’s products and services, chiefly its Azure cloud computing platform, were used by units across Israel’s air, ground and naval forces, as well as its intelligence directorate.”
Human rights defenders targeted
While it is not clear if Microsoft AI technology was used, Dublin-based Front Line Defenders has stated: “Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”
Front Line Defenders has noted: “People considered to be human rights defenders in the [Occupied Palestinian Territory] include journalists, lawyers, medical workers, fieldworkers, international volunteers who act as independent observers and carry out human rights work and defenders working for economic, social and cultural rights.”
To date, as many as 1,586 human rights defenders have been killed in Gaza, including 175 journalists, 408 aid workers, more than 1,000 medical staff, 2 lawyers, and 1 International Solidarity Movement volunteer (in the West Bank).
International court rulings
On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it plausible that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide and issued six provisional measures, including ordering Israel to preserve evidence of crimes committed in Gaza.
Then on November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The court’s judges concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population and murder.
UN OCA on “atrocity crimes”
On March 28, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said: “The acts of war that we see bear the hallmarks of atrocity crimes. Hundreds of children and other civilians have been killed in health and Israeli airstrikes. Intensely populated areas hospitals are once again battlegrounds; patients killed in their beds, ambulances shot at, and first responders killed.”
UN experts of the transfer of weapons
Notably, on June 20, 2024, United Nations experts also stated the transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws and risk State complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide. They highlighted companies’ responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention, international human rights treaties, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Microsoft at CANSEC
Given the high number of Palestinian human rights defenders killed, the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and UN experts highlighting the responsibilities of companies to international conventions, treaties and principles and their statement that the transfer of weapons to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws, we are following with close interest the upcoming CANSEC arms show in Ottawa.
The Microsoft Defence & Intelligence team was at CANSEC 2024, while Microsoft Canada is a member of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the organizer of CANSEC.
It is expected that Microsoft will be at CANSEC again this coming May 28-29, 2025.
For more about the mobilization challenging CANSEC, go to: @shut.down.cansec on Instagram.
In the lead up to CANSEC there will also be a Stop the Genocide: Canada Must Stop Arming Israel rally on April 12 starting on Parliament Hill.
0 Comments