I can no longer excuse my silence on the BDS call to boycott
adding my voice to the growing chorus
I should no longer be using my lack as an excuse to not add my voice to the call for solidarity, for pushing the knowledge of a call to boycott onto others, and to increase the volume to hopefully leverage real, cultural, substantial change into happening.
The purpose of this post is to attempt to increase the volume of the boycott, to spread the knowledge of it to those who may not have heard it, and to ask you to share the existence of boycott with others, to participate in it, in the hopes of creating a chorus that cannot be ignored as it largely has been.
Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza…In light of the International Court of Justice’s legally-binding rulings to prevent Israel’s plausible genocide in Gaza, as well as its July 19 Advisory Opinion affirming Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid system, Microsoft has failed its corporate obligation to prevent genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
No Justice, No Peace: A List of Israeli War Crimes Since Oct. 7 | Institute for Palestine Studies
While the following compilation is non-exhaustive, the evidence for the listed crimes is overwhelming. As the scope of this work is limited, this should be a call for immediate, further investigation and subsequent prosecution through capable parties. This article will cover issues relating to the breaching of “treaty law” — such as violations of articles within the Geneva Conventions (1949) — along with other infringements on separate conventions to which the Israeli state is either a signatory or has ratified, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Genocide Convention, etc.
Gaza death toll: how many Palestinians has Israel's offensive killed?
A new list released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health that includes the names, age and gender of those killed up until March 22 includes 50,021 people, ranging from a newborn baby to a 110-year-old. Of those, 15,613 or 31% were under 18.
I cancelled my Game Pass subscription in April. I have attempted to spread the word to friends about the boycott. I have refrained from giving money or airtime to Microsoft. There are other games to play. I do not keep up with the latest releases so I have not had to spend anything to refrain from posting about the most recent Microsoft published games such as Oblivion and Doom. I am disappointed in the lack of acknowledgement within games press about this, and concur with Autumn’s writing for Aftermath,
There are many of you who know games are political and feel at a loss for what to do right now in ways greater than interpreting bulleted lists of correct behaviors, who cannot imagine that writing about games could at all align with moving the world towards justice. I am sure I am not the only one who has felt, at times, like my writing cannot do to the world what needs to be done.
I know why not everyone is jumping onto this, and why I excused myself as not having a large enough platform to participate for so long, and it is because it is discomforting. There is nothing we Americans hate more than discomfort. It is why we call the cops on homeless people who are doing nothing other than existing. It is why we ignore or have no opinion on the greater goings ons so long as it does not interfere with our own daily life. It is why Israel has been able to enact genocide with no repercussions and instead with great encouragement from our government and corporations.
Biden’s administration never called for a ceasefire during its 472 days it presided over the most recent offensive. Trump’s bullying into a ceasefire was short lived and seemingly placated a building mass of people beginning to pay attention and call for action. Instead of voicing your displeasure with consumer boycotts or undermining a group decision of non-coverage with social media posts you can just shut up. People are being killed by violence and starvation and displacement, the least you can do is participate in the very low cost and effort boycott against a select few corporations being targeted by a legitimate organized body, God forbid at least one. Why is it that comfort is worth more than the lives being lost? We all tell ourselves lies that I, the individual, would not fall for the sins of history. I would resist the Holocaust, segregation, slavery, homophobia. Here is your opportunity to prove it.
Staying quiet is not going to bring about the change you want to see. It is only through the cooperation of many people making noise, regardless of whether your voice reaches 48 people or 42,000, can we accomplish anything. I acknowledge posting online is not a replacement for offline participation. Disruption and discomfort forced onto those in power does more than anything else. I do, however, now hold a greater belief in the power of speaking something into existence. Making consistent, incessant claims can make it real. Not manifestation, but controlling the narrative to chart public opinion.
This is as much of a call to action for myself as it is for others.