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A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians

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Written by Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham
Published: 06 August 2025 06 August 2025

Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe

According to three Unit 8200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Thanks to the control it exerts over Palestinian telecommunications infrastructure, Israel has long intercepted phone calls in the occupied territories. But the indiscriminate new system allows intelligence officers to play back the content of cellular calls made by Palestinians, capturing the conversations of a much larger pool of ordinary civilians.

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-israeli-military-palestinian-phone-calls-cloud

And at: https://www.972mag.com/microsoft-8200-intelligence-surveillance-cloud-azure/

I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump

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Written by Rashid Khalidi Rashid Khalidi
Published: 01 August 2025 01 August 2025

The university’s draconian policies and new definition of antisemitism make much teaching impossible

Dear Acting President Shipman,

I am writing you an open letter since you have seen fit to communicate the recent decisions of the board of trustees and the administration in a similar fashion. 

These decisions, taken in close collaboration with the Trump administration, have made it impossible for me to teach modern Middle East history, the field of my scholarship and teaching for more than 50 years, 23 of them at Columbia. Although I have retired, I was scheduled to teach a large lecture course on this topic in the fall as a “special lecturer”, but I cannot do so under the conditions Columbia has accepted by capitulating to the Trump administration in June.

Read the full letter at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/01/columbia-historian-rashid-khalidi-open-letter

Mamdani’s criticism of Israel and support for Palestinians attracted voters, new poll shows

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Written by Jacob Kornbluh Jacob Kornbluh
Published: 29 July 2025 29 July 2025

Among voters who supported Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic mayoral primary, 62% said his support for Palestinian rights swayed their decision

Read more at: https://forward.com/fast-forward/758857/poll-mamdani-israel-gaza-palestinians-democrats/

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups

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Written by Emma Graham-Harrison | The Guardian Emma Graham-Harrison | The Guardian
Published: 28 July 2025 28 July 2025

Reports detailing intentional targeting of Palestinians as a group, and systemic destruction of Palestinian society, add to pressure for action

Watch the B'tselem video, Our Genocide.

Read B'tselems report, Our Genocide. 

Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.

In reports published on Monday, the two groups said Israel had targeted civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinians over nearly two years of war, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to Palestinian society.

Multiple international and Palestinian groups have already described the war as genocidal, but reports from two of Israel-Palestine’s most respected human rights organisations, who have for decades documented systemic abuses, is likely to add to pressure for action.

The reports detailed crimes including the killing of tens of thousands of women, children and elderly people, mass forced displacement and starvation, and the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure that have deprived Palestinians of healthcare, education and other basic rights.

“What we see is a clear, intentional attack on civilians in order to destroy a group,” said Yuli Novak, the director of B’Tselem, calling for urgent action. “I think every human being has to ask himself: what do you do in the face of genocide?”

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/28/israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza-say-israel-based-human-rights-groups

Is this Gaza’s ‘bomb the tracks’ moment?

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Written by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man | +972 Magazine Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man | +972 Magazine
Published: 27 July 2025 27 July 2025

With Gaza’s annihilation in plain sight, the question is what can compel global intervention to end Israel's genocide — and what form it will take.

It is often said that Israel’s war on Gaza is the first live-streamed genocide. Hind Rajab’s tragic final pleas and breaths were broadcast across the internet for all to hear. Israeli soldiers proudly post videos of their atrocities and destruction on TikTok. Brave Palestinians have built massive social media followings, as viewers log on every day to witness their hunger, displacement, and terror. More people around the world have been exposed to near real-time, graphic images of killings and starvation than ever in history. 

What is not unique about the genocide in Gaza is that world leaders — the only people with the means to stop it — have known about Israel’s actions, and its intentions, since day one. And they have done close to nothing to stop it.

Read more at:

https://www.972mag.com/gaza-genocide-global-intervention-holocaust/

More Articles ...

  1. Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication
  2. Israeli plan for forced transfer of Gaza’s population ‘a blueprint for crimes against humanity’
  3. 'Economy of Genocide': UN Expert Accuses Major Corporations of Profiting Off of Israel's Assault on Gaza
  4. Over 400 Media Figures Urge BBC to Remove ex-Jewish Chronicle Director From Board Over Gaza Coverage
  5. Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe, fragments reveal
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