Showing posts with label war crimes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war crimes. Show all posts

Saturday, May 30, 2026

Canada Exported $14.6 Million Of Military Goods To Israel In 2025

 

Canada arms exports military goods Israel lawlessness Gaza genocide profiteering

A total of 50 military export permits were utilized to sell goods to Israel in 2025.

Canada exported $14.6 million worth of military goods directly to Israel last year, according to a report published today by Global Affairs Canada.

A total of 50 military export permits were utilized to sell goods to Israel in 2025, the report says.

The military goods were shipped despite the Liberal government stating that it paused approvals of some new military export permits on January 8, 2024 and suspending dozens of existing permits for goods that it believed could be used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Under the Export and Import Permits Act, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is legally obliged not to authorize military export permits if there is a substantial risk the goods could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.

The report states that two new military export permits to Israel were issued in 2025.

The Maple revealed last year that these permits were for parts related to Israel’s Iron Dome missile system, which allows Israel to inflict massive civilian casualties at a scale that dwarfs its own losses. The two permits were valued at $37.2 million.  (more...)

Canada Exported $14.6 Million Of Military Goods To Israel In 2025


Thursday, May 28, 2026

Polish-Palestinian survivors take Israeli leaders to court over Gaza genocide

Israel Polish-Palestinians Gaza genocide prosecution crimes against humanity justice accountability

 

Yoav Gallant, Israel Katz and military top brass accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Lawyers call it a test for the country's justice system

Five-year-old Malik still hides food beside his pillow before he goes to sleep - sometimes a piece of bread, sometimes fruit, sometimes a sweet.

His four-year-old sister Razan sets aside part of every meal, even when there is plenty on her plate.

Malik confuses the words "tent" and "home". Both children flinch at smoke and flashing red lights, bracing for bombs.

More than two years have passed since their parents got them out of Gaza. The memories have not left them.

On Monday, their father, Amjad Agha, and another Palestinian-Polish survivor, Ahmed Elsaftawy, walked into the district prosecutor's office in Wrocław, southern Poland, and filed a criminal complaint accusing senior Israeli officials of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

Among those named are former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and his successor, Israel Katz; the former and current chiefs of staff of the Israeli army; the commander of the Israeli navy; the minister of energy and water; and the current and former heads of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), the body that controls humanitarian access to Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

It is one of the first cases of its kind in Europe brought by named survivors with dual citizenship, and lawyers say it is designed to test whether Polish prosecutors will treat international crimes against their own nationals with the seriousness the law demands.  (more...)

Polish-Palestinian survivors take Israeli leaders to court over Gaza genocide


Wednesday, May 27, 2026

How Palestine Activists Eked Out a Win at the Canadian Labour Congress

 

Canadian Labour Congress Histadrut Israel Palestine solidarity hot cargo Israel lobby influence

Canada's biggest labour body agreed to cut ties with its Israeli counterpart

The largest labour organization in Canada has committed to cutting ties with Israel’s trade federation, the Histadrut.

A resolution passed at the constitutional convention of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in Winnipeg earlier this month also calls on the Canadian government to support a two-way arms embargo, suspend the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and condemn Israeli settlement expansion.

Kevin MacKay, who attended the convention as a delegate from the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), told PressProgress that, when it came time for the vote, “We had a lot of the biggest labour leaders in the hall lining up at the mic to either speak or show support for the resolution.”

“It’s amazing to have leadership on board,” said MacKay, an anthropology professor at Mohawk College. “That’s not always the case.”

Until the eleventh hour, delegates like MacKay weren’t sure if they would be voting on a resolution to cut ties with the Histadrut — after a resolution to declare trade, services and relationships with Israel to be “hot cargo” was disqualified altogether.

MacKay is a member of Labour For Palestine (L4P), a volunteer-run effort made up of workers from across Canada. The group has been organizing to pass hot-cargo resolutions at provincial labour federations that would instruct workers to refrain from handling all goods produced by, or going to, Israel.

Less than a week before the convention began, activists with L4P got word that the resolution they spearheaded, which would have committed the CLC to issuing a hot-cargo declaration and cutting ties with the Histadrut, had been given a “non-concurrence” decision by the CLC’s General Resolutions Committee, meaning it wouldn’t be presented to delegates for a vote.

“We believe that this is a political discussion and a political decision,” Hassan Husseini, a member of L4P’s national steering committee, told PressProgress just ahead of the convention.  (more...)

How Palestine Activists Eked Out a Win at the Canadian Labour Congress


Sunday, May 24, 2026

Will World War III Begin on German Soil?

 

NATO Germany neo-Nazi Ukraine militarization EU drones complicity

It is arguably the case that the spark that could unleash nuclear World War III between NATO and Russia (and China) will not come from the war against Iran or even Ukraine—dangerous though those crises continue to be—but from Germany.

On a widely watched TV talk show on ZDF, Germany’s second public television channel, a highly-respected retired brigadier general who was Military Policy Adviser to former Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2006-2013, Erich Vad, finally gave voice to what many Germans have been scared to say out loud. “Your rhetoric is driving us into a war!” he told CDU security expert Roderich Kiesewetter, a well-known war hawk. If the anti-Russian war mobilization of Germany by the Merz government continues; if they insist on bringing Ukraine into the EU on an expedited basis; and if Germany and other NATO countries keep producing and guiding the drones that are raining havoc on Russia, “You will have Russian missile strikes on our country!” Vad warned.

Vad didn’t mince his words: “The day will come when they [the Russians] carry out retaliatory strikes against Europe, against Germany. First conventionally, and if necessary, they’ll go one level higher. Russia is the world’s strongest nuclear power. If we bring Ukraine into Europe, we will bring the war with Russia into Europe!”

Vad was not overstating the problem.

The Russian government is placing the blame squarely on the nations of NATO and the EU for what they call the “barbaric” May 22 attack on the Starobelsk trade school in the Lugansk People’s Republic, in which Ukrainian drones killed 18 adolescents (at last count) and wounded dozens more as they slept in their dormitories. “This constitutes a manifestation of neo-Nazism,” President Vladimir Putin charged.  (more...)

Will World War III Begin on German Soil?


Terror and Mental War

 

Ukraine Britain MI6 Russia Starobelsk College terrorism drone attack psychological warfare massacre youth atrocity war crime

The Ukrainian attack on the Starobelsk College in Lugansk is part of a larger western psychological warfare operation designed to undermine Russian confidence in its leadership.

Death came in a dream.

In the early morning hours of Friday, May 22, 86 students of the Starobelsk College, part of the Luhansk Pedagogical University, were snuggled up in their beds, dreaming the dreams of youth, full of excitement and anticipation of all that life held for them. The students were preparing to become the future educators of the next generation of Russians, those who would be tasked with taking Lugansk and rest of the Donbas region out of the doldrums of war and into a bright shining future filled with hope and promise.

Ukrainian forces used large aircraft-type attack UAVs—16 total, in three distinct waves. At least four of these aircraft impacted the buildings of Starobelsk College, including the dormitory where the 86 students were sleeping.

As of this writing, at least 4 students have been killed and 35 others injured. But with 18 students still trapped under the rubble of their dormitory, these numbers will surely go up.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rightly condemned the attack on the Starobelsk College, and has instructed the Russian Ministry of Defense to come up with options on how best to respond.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside Russia darkens.

The Russian Foreign Ministry rightly points out the absolute silence on the part of the collective West when it comes to condemning the attack on 86 sleeping students. And the western media meanwhile parrots the Ukrainian narrative which justifies the attack as part and parcel of the need for Ukraine to collectively punish Russia and the Russian people for their crime of attacking Ukraine. “We are bringing the war back home—to Russia—and that’s only fair,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the attack, which was part of a larger wave of drones dispatched by Ukraine that same day, many of which targeted strategic oil refining facilities located hundreds of kilometers inside Russia proper.

This is not a new scenario, but rather one that has been playing for several years now, a painful pattern of repeated atrocities designed to be insultingly provocative, yet intended to stop short of crossing a line from which there can be no turning back—a line that would have Russia respond decisively and, perhaps, fatally for the West and the entire world.

The mastermind behind this dangerous game of escalation management does not reside in Kiev, but rather in the heart of Perfidious Albion—85 Albert Embankment, in Vauxhall Cross, London, the gleaming headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, perhaps better known as MI-6.

It is well established that the political phenomenon that is Volodymyr Zelensky is little more than a project of British intelligence, and is an extension of a Russophobic mindset that has infected the Anglo-Saxon brain ever since the Ochakiv Crisis of 1791, when William Pitt the Younger sought to check Russia’s influence in the Black Sea.

In the mind of his British intelligence handlers, Zelensky exists for one reason and one reason only—to create the conditions necessary to collapse Russia from within.

That’s it.

The British do not care about the Ukrainian people, or some entity called Ukraine.

They only care about defeating Russia.  (more...)

Terror and Mental War


Saturday, May 23, 2026

Ukraine's Drone Attack on School Dormitory Blamed On EU's 'Nazis'

 

Ukraine Nazi school dormitory attack EU terrorism war crimes attrocities

An overnight drone attack on a school dormitory housing 14-18 year olds in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic killed at least 4 and injured at least 40 more. According to RT: “The strike hit the main academic building and dormitory of the Starobelsk Professional College. Acting Governor Leonid Pasechnik said 86 students aged 14-18 were inside the facility at the time of the attack. Rescue services said people could still be trapped under the rubble as emergency crews continue to clear debris.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Kiev is deliberately targeting children while the West remains “brutally silent... Terrorists are deliberately targeting children and taking pleasure in it.” She compared it to WWII Nazi atrocities against schoolchildren in Russia’s city, Kerch.

Harsher comments came from a former senior Pentagon security analyst, Michael Maloof, who told RT: “The EU is a terrorist regime. The people that run the EU are terrorists.” He repeated the charges that Western governments were directly involved in a campaign of attacks on Russian civilians, and asserted that the European Commission president Ursula “von der Leyen is swimming in human blood, in blood of children.” There must be criminal investigations and arrest warrants against her, along with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

He added: “The West is run by genocidal maniacs,” and he described Western governments as a “unified Nazi regime.” His accusations included the supply of HIMARS, weaponry, and critical intelligence “all coming from America, from the Five Eyes.” He claimed: “We didn’t destroy the Nazis 87 years ago… whatever was left of them went underground, and now they’re back.”  (more...)

Ukraine's Drone Attack on School Dormitory Blamed On EU's 'Nazis'



Friday, May 22, 2026

Israel and Latin American Christian Zionists seek to promote Isaac Accords

 

Israel Argentina Milei Netanyahu Isaac Accords Gaza genocide complicity Christian Zionists Latin America

On 19 April 2026, Argentina’s self-proclaimed “most Zionist president in the world,” Javier Milei, arrived in Jerusalem.

After greeting his “dearest friend” Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and affirming his support for the US-Israeli war on Iran, he signed a series of agreements to strengthen ties between Argentina and Israel despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza, where over 75,000 people have been killed since October 2023.

The Isaac Accords, which include a commitment to counter-terrorism and improved cooperation in artificial intelligence, have been in preparation since August 2025 when Milei launched a nonprofit aimed at increasing cooperation in trade, technology and cultural exchange between Israel and various Latin American countries.

Bankrolled by the Genesis Prize, the American Friends of the Isaac Accords (AFOIA) is a registered nonprofit based in New York.

Just two months earlier, Milei became the first non-Jewish recipient of the Genesis prize, dubbed the “Jewish Nobel.”

With an initial focus on Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay, three countries “primed for enhanced cooperation with Israel,” and proposed interest in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and potentially El Salvador, “the Isaac Accords are a natural continuation of the Abraham Accords,” according to Stafford Fitzgerald Haney, a former US ambassador to Costa Rica and current head of AFOIA, during an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

“Same spirit, new region, broader impact.”  (more...)

Israel and Latin American Christian Zionists seek to promote Isaac Accords



Ireland pushes for EU trade ban on Israeli settlements amid widespread violations

 

Ireland EU trade ban sanctions Israel justice settlements occupation politics

The Irish foreign minister has called for an EU-wide ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements as the occupying regime pushes ahead with a Palestinian land grab and the expansion of settlements across the occupied West Bank. 

In a social media post on Friday, Helen McEntee said that the bloc must send a “strong signal” that such actions were "unacceptable."

“Today at the Trade Foreign Affairs Council, I’m calling for an EU-level ban on trade with illegal settlements. We must send a strong signal that this behavior is unacceptable and must stop,” McEntee said on X.

Also speaking ahead of the EU council meeting, McEntee also said ministers would discuss European security, the situation in West Asia, and its impact on the bloc’s economic security.

European countries, including Spain and Ireland, have already pushed to suspend a pact governing the EU's ties with Israel.

They are leading a coalition urging the EU to take firm action: suspend the Israel Association Agreement, ban arms exports and impose sanctions over genocidal war in Gaza and rights abuses across the occupied territories.  (more...)

Ireland pushes for EU trade ban on Israeli settlements amid widespread violations



Monday, May 18, 2026

TikTok's Israel Soldiers

 

Tik Tok film Israel IDF oppression Lausanne Film Festival Switzerland

In August of 2024, I came across a photo of two Israeli soldiers in a home in Khan Younis (Gaza) that they were occupying. I don't know what happened to the people who lived there. Both were from Israel's 603 Battalion. Sergeant Shalev Xinbar and Sergeant Roee Ben Abu. For more than a year we had seen soldiers dressing up in Palestinian women's lingerie and underwear. That wasn't new. What stood out most for me was the world that these soldiers had created for themselves. Teenage sergeants. Zits and all. I thought to myself, nothing encapsulates Israel better at this most than these two gleeful and maniacal little boys with their murderous machinery hanging off their bodies. I immediately began to zoom in and talk about what I was seeing. After putting it up on Instagram, the executive director of the Lausanne Film Festival saw it and asked me to submit the film for festival consideration. A couple weeks later, TikTok's Israel soldiers became Official Selection of the festival. I headed to Switzerland with the film. I don't know where these two depraved degenerates are today but I'd love for them to see the film.



Saturday, May 16, 2026

Eurovision controversy grows as Bulgaria wins amid an Israeli boycott

 

Eurovision Bulgaria Vienna boycotts Gaza genocide protests Israel

Bulgaria has won the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the dance track “Bangaranga” performed by Dana.

Israel finished second in a competition overshadowed by controversy over its participation during the war on Gaza. Five countries — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia — boycotted this year’s contest in protest.

Demonstrators also marched through the streets of Vienna accusing Eurovision organizers of giving Israel a platform despite allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

Questions have also resurfaced over voting practices after Israel’s online campaigns encouraging supporters to vote multiple times for its act. Organizers had previously changed voting rules following similar accusations last year.

Despite political tensions and calls for disruption, the final went ahead without major incidents inside the arena.



US tech firm Cisco has deep ties with Israeli military, leaked documents show

 

technology internet Cisco Systems Israel genocide collaboration crime illegal settlements

Leaked documents have revealed the US tech firm Cisco Systems’ deep relationship with the Israeli regime in its continuous wars in West Asia, which the United States backs.

The papers leaked by Drop Site News on Friday reveal that Cisco has a deep illegal relationship with the Israeli regime and supported Tel Aviv forces in their atrocities against the people of Palestine, and beyond.

The Silicon Valley-based company, which produces hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, and other high-technology services used in networking, cybersecurity, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, provided support and infrastructure to Israel in its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and also ran unlawful operations in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The leaked papers provided to Drop Site by whistleblowers show Cisco’s deep and growing collaboration with the Israeli military and intelligence communities for its genocide in Gaza and continued regional wars.

The San Jose-based networking giant, with a market capitalization in excess of $270 billion and annual revenue of $56.7 billion in 2025, manufactures the routers, switches, firewalls, and communications platforms that run the internet’s infrastructure, as well as many of its worldwide corporate, government, and military networks.  (more...)

US tech firm Cisco has deep ties with Israeli military, leaked documents show


Pezeshkian hails Pope’s ‘moral stance’ against US-Israeli war on Iran

 

Masoud Pezeshkian Iran Pope Leo XIV war moral stance gratitude

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed gratitude for Pope Leo’s “moral stance” against the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, while urging the international community to adopt a realistic and fair approach to counter the “illegal demands and adventurous, dangerous policies” of the United States.

In a message addressed to the leader of the world’s Catholics, Pezeshkian stated that the “destructive approach” of the United States and Israel, along with their “illegitimate attacks,” are not directed solely against Iran.

He argued that they are an assault on the rule of law at the global level, international law, human values, and the teachings of divine religions, adding that the costs of this dangerous approach will inevitably be borne by the entire international community.

The criminal US-Israeli aggression against Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Iranian Armed Forces responded by launching daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in the Israeli-occupied territories as well as US military bases and assets across the region.

The president emphasized that Iran has consistently proven its commitment to diplomacy and peaceful solutions for resolving issues, including with the US government.  (more...)

Pezeshkian hails Pope’s ‘moral stance’ against US-Israeli war on Iran


You've got war memorials to the SS in Canada

 

Ukraine SS ratlines Canada memorials Babi Yar genocide collaboration Nazi war crimes immigration

The Babi Yar massacre was carried out by the very people you are defending, George tells caller Boris. You've hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian fa*cists who went to Canada. And your parliament honoured an SS veteran who fought against Russia in WW2.



Friday, May 15, 2026

Trump’s Iranian Nightmare

 

Trump Iran failure war depression defeat catastrophe delusions

Trump’s catastrophic miscalculation in Iran and refusal to accept the inevitability of defeat is pushing us towards a global depression and ensuring the suffering and immiseration of millions.

America’s newest quagmire in the Middle East is like its old quagmires in the Middle East. It is based, as were the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on a gross misreading of our adversaries, a catastrophic failure to understand the limits of imperial power and no discernable strategy. It swells the profits of the war industry, wasting billions of public funds, alienates our allies and erodes the global power and prestige of the United States.

Dying empires, governed by the corrupt and the incompetent, are blinded by militarism and hubris. They are unable to read the world around them. They stumble into self-defeating cul-de-sacs — as we did in Iraq, Afghanistan and earlier in Vietnam — where military adventurism accelerates self-inflicted wounds.

The war on Iran is one more chapter in our precipitous and ultimately fatal decline.

Tehran’s 10-point temporary ceasefire proposal — brokered by Pakistani mediators and presented to the U.S. 40 days after war against Iran had begun — is tantamount to surrender terms. It demands the end of U.S. and Israeli attacks, including in Lebanon. It calls for the removal of U.S. military bases and installations from the region. It solidifies Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz. It refuses to abandon uranium enrichment. It calls for the end to sanctions and termination of anti-Iranian resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency. It also requires release of frozen assets — estimated at $100 billion — and reparations for the U.S. and Israeli attacks.

This is too bitter a humiliation for the U.S. and Israel to accept.  (more...)

Trump’s Iranian Nightmare


Leaked Documents Show Cisco Systems’ Deep Relationship with Israeli Security State

 

CISCO Systems Silicon Valley business Israel military collaboration technology military opportunism communications

“Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste”: Internal documents show Cisco’s growing collaboration with the Israeli military over the course of the genocide in Gaza.

Cisco Systems is one of the most consequential—yet least visible—corporations in Silicon Valley. The San Jose-based networking giant, with a market capitalization in excess of $270 billion and annual revenue of $56.7 billion in 2025, manufactures the routers, switches, firewalls, and communications platforms that run the internet’s infrastructure, as well as many of its worldwide corporate, government, and military networks.

Cisco makes a point of publicly highlighting its commitment to corporate social responsibility, and building “an inclusive future for all” in the dozens of countries around the world in which it operates. Yet the company’s aggressive pursuit of contracts with the Israeli government and military—a small yet growing part of its global business—has led to accusations that behind this sunny facade the networking giant is profiting from genocide.

A new set of leaked documents—provided to Drop Site by whistleblowers disturbed by the company’s operations in Israel—shows Cisco’s deep and growing collaboration with the Israeli military and intelligence establishment in its regional wars and the genocide in Gaza.

In 2025, an Israeli Air Force officer publicly discussed using Cisco-powered infrastructure to support operations. The anonymous officer, identified as the head of the Israeli Air Force’s operational branch, told a tech conference in Israel that the Air Force had conducted “tens of thousands of attacks” in the past year, and described how IT systems had been vital to enabling this combat activity. The officer referenced Cisco infrastructure being used by air force intelligence personnel for communications and managing high volumes of operational data—including the use of networking tools by drone operators and ground forces to store and analyze videos and share coordinates for strikes.

Cisco’s work with the Israeli government and military has been documented in public news reports and new business announcements in the country. But the internal documents—including presentations, purchase and revenue records, and schedules—shed light on the rapidly expanding list of services that Cisco has been providing directly to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and other branches of the security state over the past several years.  (more...)

Leaked Documents Show Cisco Systems’ Deep Relationship with Israeli Security State


Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Eurovision 2026 erupts: 'Stop the genocide' chant drowns out 'Israel's' act

 

Austria Vienna Eurovision Israel genocide protests demonstrators boycott

The moment "Israel’s" contestant, Naom Bettan, stepped onto the stage at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, the arena was overtaken by chants of "Stop, stop, stop the genocide," as pro-Palestine protesters disrupted the performance in a direct act of defiance against "Israel’s" ongoing genocidal war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Several demonstrators were forcibly removed, with footage showing protesters being dragged out of the venue.

Despite this, the official Eurovision broadcast and YouTube upload edited out the chants entirely.

Earlier in the day, protests in Vienna called for "Israel’s" exclusion from the semi-finals, with one demonstrator stating, "We are here today to draw attention to the fact that a genocidal state is performing… it is a terrible disgrace."

The backlash is also reflected institutionally, as public broadcasters from Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, and Slovenia have boycotted this year’s contest, shrinking participation to its lowest level since 2003 with 35 entries. This will also potentially impact viewership, which stood at 166 million last year.



Defend the Defenders

 

Francesca Albanese US sanctions European Union UN Special Rapporteur cowardice silencing petition

Francesca Albanese is trying to stop a genocide. That is her crime.

The United States and Israel are trying to stop her – by destroying her life, her career, her family, and her voice.

The US has sanctioned UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, 8 ICC judges, 3 court officials, and Palestinian human rights organisations Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and PCHR. The message is chilling: investigate genocide, speak up for international law, and we will destroy your life. Under Executive Order 14203, anyone collaborating with the International Criminal Court becomes a target.




Alternative event held to protest Israel's place in Eurovision

 

Eurovision Brussels Palestine solidarity Israel boycott music song contest

'United for Palestine' is an alternative music event taking place in Brussels, on the night of the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final. The group has called for a boycott of the official event due to Israel competing. Shadia Edwards-Dashti reports.



Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Microsoft ousts Israel country manager over mass surveillance system targeting Palestinians

 

Microsoft Azure Israel Unit 8200 mass surveillance lawlessness

The probe revealed that Microsoft Azure servers stored millions of Palestinian phone call recordings for the Israeli army’s Unit 8200

Microsoft Israel country general manager Alon Haimovich was removed from his post after an internal investigation into the branch’s ties with the Israeli Defense Ministry, Globes reported on 11 May.

The Israeli office was placed under Microsoft France until a permanent replacement is appointed. 

Haimovich, who led Microsoft Israel for four years, was summoned as part of the probe after the local branch failed to fully disclose how the ministry was using Microsoft systems.

Several managers responsible for internal oversight, compliance, and governance are also leaving their posts.

According to Globes, Microsoft was concerned that Israeli military units were using its systems in ways that were not transparent to global management, violated company terms, and exposed Microsoft to legal and regulatory risks in Europe.  (more...)

Microsoft ousts Israel country manager over mass surveillance system targeting Palestinians



Monday, May 11, 2026

Eurovision 2026 faces biggest boycott in 70-year history

 

Eurovision Boycott Israel music protest Palestine solidarity activism

Broadcasters from Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia have withdrawn from this week’s event over Israel’s participation

Public broadcasters in Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have said they would not air the 70th anniversary Eurovision Song Contest, which begins on Tuesday in Austria and will culminate in Saturday’s grand finale, citing opposition to Israel’s participation.

The three countries, along with the Netherlands and Iceland, withdrew on Monday from this year’s event in Vienna, leaving the contest facing the biggest boycott in its 70-year history.

Vienna police have said they expect disruptive protests and possible attempts to block the event, particularly on the last day. Authorities said a pro-Palestinian demonstration involving around 3,000 people has been registered for May 16.

Earlier this year, the broadcasters urged contest organizers at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to bar Israel over alleged vote-rigging and the war in Gaza. The EBU said Israel met the contest’s eligibility requirements and would remain in this year’s competition.

Israel has rejected accusations of genocide since launching its operation targeting Hamas in Gaza after the militant group made its deadly incursion into southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. The enclave’s authorities say Israel’s response has left nearly 70,000 Palestinians dead.  (more...)

Eurovision 2026 faces biggest boycott in 70-year history