We call on Friends Fiduciary to divest from corporations like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, which are complicit in the ongoing occupation and apartheid of Palestine as well as the brutal ethnic cleansing and genocide waged against Palestinian men, women and children. For a full list of corporations complicit in these crimes, visit the American Friends Service Committee's (AFSC) Investigate Project.

As Quakers, we are pained by the live-streamed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The Religious Society of Friends upholds the peace testimony and believes that all life is valuable. We are horrified to realize that our monthly meetings and Quaker organizations like New York Quarterly Meeting, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and New York Yearly Meeting have invested our funds in Friends Fiduciary, which controls shares in corporations like Amazon—companies that knowingly facilitate these crimes against humanity with advanced technology (cloud computing, algorithms and artificial intelligence). 

The issue is not just about stopping investment; it's about disengaging from a system that supports the ethnic cleansing of an entire people. It's about recognizing and championing the intrinsic value of all lives. The Israeli military’s AI-powered targeting systems 'Lavender' and 'Where’s Daddy?' have had a profound impact on Gaza's population, which is undergoing what many human rights groups like Amnesty International and the United Nations consider a genocide. 

Amazon's Project Nimbus contract provides advanced AI capabilities for Israeli military and intelligence agencies to harvest data for facial recognition, tracking, and targeted killing of Palestinians, including journalists, doctors and teachers – in violation of international laws. Tech workers at these companies have criticized the use of these technologies to facilitate unethical surveillance and military actions against civilian populations. Amazon Web Services readily offers cloud services to AnyVision, a facial recognition technology firm accused of surveilling Palestinians living in the West Bank, thereby playing a part in the violation of human rights (source: NBC News; Oct 2019).

You can learn more about how companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are facilitating occupation, apartheid and genocide in Palestine by reading this investigative report by Israeli journalists at +972 and Local Call: 972mag.com/cloud-israeli-army-gaza-amazon-google-microsoft.

By divesting from these companies, Friends Fiduciary can prove its commitment to holding Quaker testimonies above worldly gain, reaffirm the value of all human life, and set an example for other financial institutions to follow. You did it before when Quakers urged you to divest from fossil fuel companies. It's time to align our financial actions with our spiritual and ethical convictions. Please, sign this petition and support our call for Friends Fiduciary to divest from companies that contribute to the suffering of innocent Palestinian lives.