No Tech for Oppression, Apartheid or Genocide

Resist technologies of violence.

How can we resist technologies of violence with BDS to end big tech’s complicity in apartheid and genocide?

BDS works, as senior Israeli leaders admit. Pressuring tech companies to end their complicity in feeding Israel’s war chest and designing technologies for violent oppression and war crimes is possible and crucial for the movement and humanity at large. We can end tech’s role in Israel’s regime of military occupation, apartheid, and genocide through strategic and targeted boycott and divestment campaigns and the creation of ethical policies regulating dual-use technology as well as all technology.

The BDS movement divides all corporate targets into three categories: consumer boycott targets, divestment and exclusion targets, and pressure targets. Based on our international law-based Corporate Complicity Criteria, the BDS movement calls for divesting from complicit companies whenever possible. We can impact their profits by divesting from these companies and excluding them from contracts at local government, university, hospital, and union levels. The BDS movement calls for all forms of peaceful pressure against these companies, including boycotts, if reasonable alternatives exist. Pressure tactics can and should be used against all the complicit tech companies below, in addition to other tactics.

All BDS tech targets are Divestment, exclusion, and Pressure targets, and specific companies present the opportunity for strategic boycotts. If feasible alternatives exist in your location, the BDS Movement encourages individuals to boycott Amazon, Motorola, Intel, HP, and Microsoft products whenever possible. 

BDS Tech targets 

• Amazon (Worker-led campaign)
• Google/Alphabet (Worker-led campaign)
• Intel (BDS and Worker-led campaign)
• Microsoft (Worker-led campaign)
• Oracle (Worker-led campaign)
• Cisco (BDS and Partner-led Campaign)
• HP (BDS and Partner-led Campaign)
• Palantir (BDS and Partner-led Campaign)
• IBM
• Dell
• Meta
• Motorola Solutions

Ideological commitment and over-representation in positions of power: Two main factors behind Israel’s unparalleled influence in US and Western tech companies

Ideological motives behind investment in Israel’s high-tech are finally being acknowledged and successfully challenged. With Israel’s tech sector in a dramatic state of decline, Western companies’ decision to invest in apartheid Israel and Israeli tech startups exposes tech’s ideological commitment to Zionism– even at the risk of profit loss. In December 2023, over two months into Israel’s Gaza Genocide, Intel’s then CEO (a Christian Zionist) CEO announced plans for investing $25B in a factory miles away from Gaza. Following shareholders’ pressure, the plan was scrapped, dealing a “severe blow” to Israel’s “already damaged economy.” In 2022, Intel Israel’s exports constituted 1.75% of Israel’s entire GDP. The collapse of Intel and its reckless investments in the sinking Israeli tech sector is an example of the true cost of ideological commitment to Zionism and Israel’s unparalleled influence in US and Western tech companies.

First: Over-representation of Israeli spies-turned-tech executives in powerful positions in leading US tech companies 

A recent investigation reveals that “former Israeli spies who helped construct the architecture of occupation, apartheid, and genocide are deeply embedded in the biggest tech companies in the world. After constructing an architecture for genocide, these former spies are now constructing the AI infrastructure that will shape our societies in fundamental ways.” The investigation notes that “Dozens of former members of Israel’s Unit 8200 - a secretive cyber warfare team accused of building the AI systems that helped enable the Gaza genocide - are now building AI systems for the world’s biggest tech and AI companies.”It added, “Former Unit 8200 members who specialize in AI, machine learning, and big data are working in AI teams at Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Open AI, and Nvidia, a dedicated AI company vying to be the biggest in the world. This Unit 8200-to-big-tech pipeline is global, with former spies specializing in AI-based in locations worldwide, from San Francisco to New York, Spain to Switzerland, London to Jerusalem.” 

Second: Ideological commitment to Zionism leading to massive investments in Israel’s economy

In the first few months of 2023, well before the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, many Israeli tech executives and investors joined the mass upheaval against Netnyahu’s far-right government and its plans to overhaul Israel’s judicial system in an authoritarian manner. Joining many of the most elite sectors of Israeli settler colonial society that like to pretend to be “liberal,” tech leaders warned of the nearing “disappearance” of the Israeli tech sector altogether, revealing in the process a largely hidden factor behind Israel’s “attraction” of US tech firms to invest in it.

Below is perhaps the most significant indicator, during that period, of the major influence that the ideological commitment to Zionism and its settler colonial project has played in determining massive international investments in Israel despite its precarious “security” conditions. 

Already on 1 March 2023, a leading Israeli financial media outlet reported:

The most influential high-tech executive to join the protests is Intel VP Tzahi Weisfeld, who recently said, “I helped found many huge companies in Israel. I did it from here because I'm a Zionist, a proud Israeli, and committed to the industry. I was always able to explain why everything must be managed from here. I have often been called upon to convince managers of multinational companies why they should come here. Something has broken in me in the last few weeks, and I am not the only one experiencing this.” Weisfeld concludes, “We are at a moment just before the disappearance of high-tech from [Israel].” His is arguably the most significant indicator to date of the major influence that the ideological commitment to Zionism and its settler colonial project has played in determining massive international investments in Israel despite its precarious “security” conditions.

"I've been in the industry for 30 years and seen everything. I founded Microsoft's startup program with huge budgets when they didn't understand why their manager was based in Israel. I helped found many huge companies in Israel. I did it from here because I'm a Zionist, a proud Israeli, and committed to the industry. I was always able to explain why everything must be managed from here. I have often been called upon to convince managers of multinational companies why they should come here. Something has broken in me in the last few weeks, and I am not the only one experiencing this."