GAZA, (PIC)
The Hamas Movement has hailed the “brave stance” of Moroccan Microsoft engineer Ibtihal Abussad, who shed light on the complicity of a major global technology company with the Israeli killing machine.
“This complicity involves providing the criminal occupation army with AI tools and technologies that facilitate the crime of genocide against the people of Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement on Saturday.
“The noble position that was voiced by engineer Ibtihal Abussad — her refusal to take part in corporate crimes and her siding with the values of humanity and justice embodied in the Palestinian question — has reflected an untainted human conscience, a strong moral principle and determination to expose the brutal side of these organizations and companies and their role in the criminal genocidal practices against the innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas said.
Hamas called on all the employees working for institutions and companies supporting the Israeli regime and its crimes to follow Abussad’s example and expose their employers’ involvement in Israel’s war crimes.
It also urged the UN, countries and human rights groups around the world to document all forms of technological complicity in Israel’s crimes and violations, pursue legal action against complicit companies, and impose immediate sanctions on them.
Ibtihal Abussad made international headlines on Friday after confronting the company’s AI chief executive during Microsoft’s 50th anniversary celebration over the tech giant’s involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza.
During a presentation about Microsoft’s AI assistant Copilot at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, Abussad interrupted Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleiman’s speech, accusing the company of supporting military operations that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
“Mustafa, shame on you,” Abussad declared while approaching the stage. “You claim that you care about using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. 50,000 people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
The protest came in the wake of an Associated Press investigation last February that revealed Microsoft and OpenAI’s artificial intelligence models were being used in Israeli military programs to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon.
