Tech giant Microsoft removed five employees from a live meeting after they had protested the company’s complicit in the Israeli crimes and its contract with the Israeli army, AP reported.
They protested for providing artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli army, which it used to target civilians in war-torn Gaza.
It came after an investigation by AP found that an AI models from Microsoft and Open AI had been used in Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Mohammed Abu Tawila is one of many Palestinians who went through extreme conditions in Israeli jails. Recently released, Abu Tawila says Israeli jailers poured acid and other chemicals on his body during an interrogation.
Abu Tawila was kidnapped from Gaza and subjected to severe beatings, including punching him in the eye.
He was tortured with chemical substances, including chlorine, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, soap, and air fresheners.
“They were ignited on my body for three days.”
“My eye was included [in the torture]. One of them would keep punching me in the eye, while wearing gloves with something tough, that resembled bone,” he recounts.
Abu Tawila would later collapse on the rubble due to the severe beating.
Once the Israeli soldiers saw how his body had reacted to the acid attack and other chemicals, they transferred him to the occupied West Bank.
Abu Tawila remained in the hospital for a few weeks before his transfer to the notorious Ofer military prison.
“Of course, there was also torture in the occupied territories, from beatings, to insults and humiliation, not to mention hunger and sitting in the cold.”
“They [Israeli guards] would release dogs on us, storm in and beat us inside, tie our hands, and take us outside to the prison yards.”
“They would also kick us, causing our faces to swell and bleed,” Abu Tawila recounts.
In a recent post on X, Israel’s far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir shared a video showing the abuse and humiliation of Palestinians in the Keziot prison, located in the Negev desert.
In the clip, a detainee can be seen kneeling and painting the prison walls, while an Israeli guard stands over him, pointing a weapon in his direction.
Several other prisoners are shown kneeling and facing the opposite wall.
Testimonies also describe regular beatings by guards, extreme overcrowding, humiliation and inadequate hygiene.
In early August 2024, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israeli authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in “torture camps,” subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.
Human rights organizations say Israel continues to violate all rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention and international laws.
Dozens of Palestinians killed in Israeli detention
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said at least 59 Palestinians held by Israel have lost their lives since October 2023.
The PPS said 38 people of the group are from the Gaza Strip.
The PPS accused the Israeli authorities of hiding the death of scores of Palestinian prisoners in detention.
Separately, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs confirmed that Musab Hani Haniyeh was the latest victim who died in Israeli custody according to PressTV.
Haniyeh, 35, from the southern city of Khan Yunis, was abducted on March 3, 2024. His family said Haniyeh was in good health before his detention.
More than 14,500 Palestinians have been kidnapped by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank since October 2023. Dozens of them have died in detention in recent months.
Daniel Levy, a British-Israeli political analyst and former peace negotiator, stated: “A minute of silence for each of the Bibas children would be appropriate, as would a minute of silence for each of the more than 18,000 Palestinian children murdered in Israel’s devastation of Gaza. That silence would extend to over 300 hours.”
Israel is set to release 620 Palestinian detainees after days of stalling by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The expected release as announced by Hamas will now proceed as originally scheduled.
Hamas had stated that Israel violated the ceasefire agreement, in place since 19 January 19, by freezing the release of Palestinian detainees. It insisted Israel failed to uphold its commitments, after Hamas released Israeli prisoners as agreed. Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi warned that no releases would mean that the deal to release more of the hostages would be off-the-table.
The Israeli government is angry because of the way the Israeli hostages are being released through “humiliating ceremonies” especially after an Israeli prisoner expressed gratitude to Hamas fighters upon release, kissing their foreheads.
However, Israel soon caved in under pressure from the countries sponsoring the negotiations mainly, the USA, Egypt and Qatar.
Even before Trump’s coming of age, which is a long way away, or more accurately so, coming to power, one often wondered about the status of the European Union (EU) in the world of changing circumstances and the existential meaning of its presence on the world power map among the increasing differences among its member states.
Although and frankly, differences always existed within the Union, the Russian invasion of Ukraine made those differences more acute, sharper and penchant materializing between those Europeans fearing being next on the Russian menu, those who want an assertive position against Moscow, those reluctant either way, and those who are out rightly pro-Russia.
Evidently, having unity among the 27 European countries which are not necessarily different in their political structures, yet having necessarily different strategic interests end up with infighting, recriminations and threats.
As well what makes things near-impossible, is that the EU does not have a mechanism to expel a fellow-member from the Union, so one is always beleiving that there is hope that an obtrusive member of the Union would walk out voluntarily in the manner made by the British Brexit.
Now it is more complicated. Not only the EU is having to deal with a possible Russian threat, but also a looming trade war with the US that is compounded with the distinct possibility that America may be withdrawing its protection umbrella from Europe.
Of course, this legitimately raises the question about the future of NATO; a question which was raised before especially after the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. This ultimately means a new form of a military alliance will be required for the EU.
Ideally, one would have thought a smaller EU entity, leaner and meaner, with incorporation of Britain in it, would the best option, while the rest of Europe, from its center to its eastern side, hitched by accords with Russia and the USA.
This would be far better instead of the current large European crippled Levathian with Britain running like a headless chicken proposing to be the bridge between the USA and EU, a link both sides of the Atlantic believe it’s too far a gap for any meaningful effect.
Having said all that, there is a window of opportunity now with the new government in Germany, showing more courageous initiatives in wanting to see a reset of the Atlantic relationship, which falls well with President Macron of France, the other core member of the EU which has the idea of creating a single European army to protect the EU and its interests.
When it comes to transnational trade, the absurdity of the war of tariffs will hurt all including the American economy, though European companies whose main market is in the USA will go and invest in America, but those US companies whose main market is Europe, will invest in the EU.
Essentially, the seismic shift in relations across the Atlantic is set to commence with most probably less profits but more fairness.
Dr Khairi Janbek is a Jordanian writer based in Paris, France
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