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Credit Andy Singer 2024

A BBC investigation reveals that Microsoft is permanently banning Palestinians in the U.S. and other countries who use Skype to call relatives in Gaza.

Reportedly, Microsoft has been banning and wiping the accounts of users who have leveraged Skype to contact relatives in Gaza. In some cases, email accounts over a decade old have been locked, destroying access to banking accounts, OneDrive storage, and beyond.

United States resident Salah Elsadi lost his account of over 15 years in the dragnet. "I've had this Hotmail for 15 years. They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms — what terms? Tell me. I've filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times." Eiad Hametto from Saudi Arabia echoed the report, "We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families. They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years. It was connected to all my work. They killed my life online."

Many of the users affected by the bans expressed that Microsoft may be falsely labelling them as Hamas

The University of Waterloo in Canada has filed a lawsuit against its students for continuing its pro-Palestine encampment urging the university to disclose and divest from Israel.

According to reports in the Canadian press, administrators were suing the encampment for $1.5m in damages including "trespass[ing], damage to property, intimidation and ejectment".

The university alleges the student encampment has damaged the school's reputation, driven up administrative and operational costs for the university and depreciated the university's property values.

In statement released by organisers of the encampment, Occupy UWaterloo, the student group said it was "incredibly shameful" that the university adminstration had decided "to sue their own student body that's protesting the university's complicity in a genocide that's almost nine months in and has claimed the lives of over 40,000".