<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="en-US" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/microsoft-gaza-war-icc/289838/">mintpressnews.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Microsoft\u2019s Role in Gaza Goes Way Beyond the ICC Email Lockout</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Robert Inlakesh</div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">May 21, 2025</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>Last week, <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/world-news/british-icc-chief-prosecutor-lost-email-bank-accounts-frozen-trump-sanctions/" target="_blank">headlines</a>
lit up with a staggering development: Microsoft locked the world\u2019s top
war crimes prosecutor out of his email. Karim Khan, chief of the
International Criminal Court (ICC), had dared to go after Israeli
officials for war crimes and was instantly digitally silenced. His
accounts were frozen. His name <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/six-months-of-lies-and-pressure-how-us-and-israeli-interference-stalled-netanyahus-icc-arrest-warrant/288704/">smeared</a>. His power stripped.</p>
<p>It looked like petty revenge. But it wasn\u2019t just that. It was the
latest move in a coordinated campaign, backed by Washington, Tel Aviv,
and Silicon Valley, to destroy the one court willing to challenge
Israeli impunity.</p>
<p>And Microsoft is at the center of it.</p>
<p>While the press obsessed over the email lockout, few paid attention
to what came before: a U.S.-Israeli information war against the ICC.</p>
<p>After the court announced arrest warrants against both Hamas and
Israeli officials for war crimes in Gaza, U.S. officials went into
overdrive. Biden called the decision \u201coutrageous.\u201d Lawmakers threatened
sanctions. Netanyahu smeared the court as \u201c<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/netanyahu-denounces-icc-ruling-israeli-politicians-offer-him-support-2024-11-21/" target="_blank">antisemitic</a>.\u201d</p>
<p>Despite the outrage, the warrants reflected a 3-to-2 ratio: Yahya
Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed al-Deif of Hamas; Israeli Defense
Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu.</p>
<p>All three Palestinian leaders have since been killed. The Israeli officials remain untouched.</p>
<p>Then came the kicker: the U.S. government <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/imposing-sanctions-on-the-international-criminal-court/" target="_blank">sanctioned</a> Khan himself. His bank accounts were frozen, and his allies were warned: help him and face criminal charges.</p>
<p>It wasn\u2019t the first time, either. In 2002, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/1610" target="_blank">American Service-Members\u2019 Protection Act</a>,
better known as the Hague Invasion Act. It authorizes the president to
send troops into the Netherlands if any American or allied official is
detained by the court.</p>
<p>But while the U.S. handled the threats and the muscle, Microsoft
played a more subtle role. According to Khan, the company blocked him
from his official ICC email account just as he was formalizing charges
against top Israeli leaders. The timing, to many, wasn\u2019t a
coincidence\u2014it was a message.</p>
<p>Following October 7, Microsoft signed $10 million in <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/inside-campaign-end-microsofts-collaboration-israeli-army" target="_blank">new contracts</a>
with the Israeli military. Through a secretive program called \u201cProject
Azure,\u201d the company provided infrastructure for Israeli intelligence and
air force units, including Unit 8200 and Unit 81. These are the same
units compiling \u201ckill lists\u201d in Gaza.</p>
<p>The company stayed quiet until recently, when it <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-microsoft-ai-gaza-b2752850.html" target="_blank">admitted</a> to providing \u201cemergency support\u201d to Israel. But insisted that there was \u201cno evidence\u201d its tech harmed civilians.</p>
<p>That\u2019s not all. Microsoft previously poured $78 million into the
Israeli surveillance firm AnyVision, whose facial recognition tech was
deployed across the West Bank. It also powered an app developed by the
Israeli military\u2014\u201c<a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/dell-microsoft-big-tech-role-israeli-occupation-report/285104/">Al Munaseq</a>\u201d\u2014which spies on Palestinian permit-holders. Its cloud systems processed their private phone data.</p>
<p>Worse still, Microsoft has been <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/revealed-former-israeli-spies-working-top-jobs-google-facebook-amazon/282413/">stacking</a>
its upper ranks with veterans of Israel\u2019s Unit 8200, effectively
embedding a foreign intelligence agency into the core of one of
America\u2019s most powerful corporations and building its next data centers
in Israel.</p>
<p>While the ICC is being sabotaged from the top, resistance is brewing
from within. On April 4, two Microsoft employees, one a whistleblower,
disrupted the company\u2019s 50th anniversary celebration, accusing it of
complicity in genocide. Both were fired.</p>
<p>Then, at the Build 2025 conference, Palestinian engineer Joe Lopez
interrupted CEO Satya Nadella mid-speech: \u201cMy people are suffering!\u201d
Security dragged him out. A day later, another protester shouted down a
separate keynote: \u201cNo Azure for Apartheid!\u201d Protesters outside waved
Palestinian flags and demanded answers.</p>
<p>These demonstrations were organized by the group No Azure for
Apartheid, which has been documenting how Microsoft\u2019s tools are helping
Israel wage war. Inside the company, those who speak out face
retaliation.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Netanyahu is <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-05-21/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-warns-iccs-khan-im-not-concerned-over-going-abroad-he-should-be-worried/0000018f-9b5e-dce9-a1cf-ffde9c400000" target="_blank">gloating</a>. \u201cThe prosecutor should be worried about his status,\u201d he said after the warrants were announced. That threat has aged well.</p>
<p>Many critics of Microsoft\u2019s outsized role in Israel\u2019s war argue that
when a foreign state and its allies in Silicon Valley can paralyze an
international court with the click of a button, it\u2019s not just Gaza under
siege, it\u2019s in our institutions, our tech, and our sovereignty.</p>
<p>Feature photo | An Israeli officer wears Microsoft\u2019s HoloLens headset
during military testing in Ramat Gan, Israel. Stefanie J\u2019rkel | AP</p>
<p><em><strong> Robert Inlakesh</strong> is a political analyst,
journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He
has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and
hosts the show \u2018Palestine Files\u2019. Director of \u2018Steal of the Century:
Trump\u2019s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe\u2019. Follow him on Twitter
@falasteen47</em></p>
</div><p><span>
<img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/themes/core/images//icons/creative-commons.png">
</span>
<strong>
<a>
Republish our stories! </a>
</strong> MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
International License. </p></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
<br></div>