Tech workers are also increasingly determined to hold their workplaces accountable for enabling the genocide in Gaza.
By Jesse Roth ,
August 21, 2025
Marching outside 9200 Sunset protestors carry portraits and signs demanding the abolition of ICE and Palantir on June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles, California.MADISON SWART / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images
An organizer, wearing a keffiyeh and a shirt reading “Divest from Genocide,” stood on a table: “We’re all standing here today to hold companies like Palantir and Microsoft accountable for their role powering the world’s first AI-assisted genocide.”
Behind them, nearly 100 activists from Jewish Voice for Peace filled the lobby of Palantir’s Seattle offices on July 14, 2025. Activists carried banners featuring giant eyes with yellow irises: “First Palantir Surveils, then IDF Kills.” “First Palantir Tracks, then ICE attacks.” Arm in arm, they blocked the elevators to the building, preventing employees from accessing their offices.
On the same day, hundreds of activists protested at Palantir’s other U.S. Offices in New York, Washington D.C., Palo Alto, and Denver.
Palantir, one of the planet’s most advanced data mining companies, advertises that their mission is “to ensure America’s future” “on the factory floor, in the operating room, across the battlefield—we build to dominate.”
Hossam Nasr, an organizer with No Azure for Apartheid (and a participant in the Seattle protest), said, “Palantir is the [company] that’s most brazenly and explicitly leading this charge of tech companies becoming arms of the state…Their CEO brags about how their technology kills people.”
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An organizer, wearing a keffiyeh and a shirt reading “Divest from Genocide,” stood on a table: “We’re all standing here today to hold companies like Palantir and Microsoft accountable for their role powering the world’s first AI-assisted genocide.”
Behind them, nearly 100 activists from Jewish Voice for Peace filled the lobby of Palantir’s Seattle offices on July 14, 2025. Activists carried banners featuring giant eyes with yellow irises: “First Palantir Surveils, then IDF Kills.” “First Palantir Tracks, then ICE attacks.” Arm in arm, they blocked the elevators to the building, preventing employees from accessing their offices.
On the same day, hundreds of activists protested at Palantir’s other U.S. Offices in New York, Washington D.C., Palo Alto, and Denver.
Palantir, one of the planet’s most advanced data mining companies, advertises that their mission is “to ensure America’s future” “on the factory floor, in the operating room, across the battlefield—we build to dominate.”
Hossam Nasr, an organizer with No Azure for Apartheid (and a participant in the Seattle protest), said, “Palantir is the [company] that’s most brazenly and explicitly leading this charge of tech companies becoming arms of the state…Their CEO brags about how their technology kills people.”
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Stephen Miller Owns Up to $250,000 in Palantir Stock, Report Finds
Palantir is reportedly building a mega-database of Americans’ personal information for the Trump administration. By Sharon Zhang , Truthout June 24, 2025
In 2022, the Department of Homeland Security signed a $96 million contract with the company, and under the second Trump administration, Palantir added a $30 million contract with ICE. Under these contracts, they’re creating an “ImmigrationOS” that would allow detailed, real-time tracking, and targeting of immigrants.” At the beginning of Trump’s second term, Palantir also struck a deal with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to create a “Mega API,” which would allow DOGE to consolidate IRS records with other government data (such as health, education, and “criminal justice” records) and interpret it using AI — a major hit to the public’s privacy rights.
Palantir is profiting royally off these contracts. Since Trump’s term began, the company’s stock price is up by over 80% — in CEO Alex Karp’s words, “surging and ferocious growth.” Notably, Department of Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller has over $100,000 invested in the company.
Palantir’s technology is also powering Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In January of 2024, Palantir agreed to a “strategic partnership” with the Israeli Defense Ministry, selling them an advanced AI platform. A report from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Palantir supplied predictive policing technology, “core defence infrastructure,” and the AI platform that powers “Lavender,” “Gospel,” and “Where’s Daddy” — AI platforms that make life-and-death surveillance and military decisions. Palantir’s software mines data from intelligence records. The AI System “Lavender” and “Gospel” then spit out lists of tens of thousands of targets. “Where’s Daddy” alerts the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) when a target enters their family home. The IOF then bombs them, their families, and often everyone else in the building. Humans serve only as a “rubber stamp” on the AI’s life-or-death decisions.
In response to Palantir’s growing power and violence, activists are increasingly targeting the company. Planet Over Profit, a climate justice organization, started targeting Palantir in mid-June by occupying the lobby of Thiel Capital, disrupting a recruiting event in San Francisco, and blocking the entrances to the company’s New York offices. These actions came to a head on July 14, when organizers across the country staged a #purgepalantir day of action.
In Washington D.C., an autonomous Palestinian and woman-led group staged a die-in outside of the Palantir Offices. The group (who have been leading demonstrations across D.C. almost every day since October 7, 2023) has protested Palantir several times before — at their offices and at several tech conferences. On July 14th, in the lobby activists chanted and unfurled banners; outside Palantir’s building, activists lay on the pavement, their faces and bodies marked with fake blood. “Palantir security guards got extremely violent,” said organizer Hazami Barmada. The guards attacked seven protestors, aggressively throwing a 67-year-old Palestinian woman against concrete.
In New York, a coalition including Planet over Profit, The New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and No Tech for Apartheid staged a protest featuring more than 60 people. Protestors blockaded the doors to Palantir’s offices, holding a banner reading “Purge Palantir. Stop the Kill Chain.” The NYPD arrested four people.
In Palo Alto, 200 attendees blocked traffic outside the Palantir office and set up a picket. Activists plastered the building with posters styled like “missing persons” posters featuring pictures and stories of people recently abducted by ICE. “ICE Runs on Palantir; Palantir Powers ICE,” they read.
Activists with JVP-Seattle protest at the Palantir Offices in Seattle, Washington, on July 14, 2025.Alex Garland
Denver’s protest featured a march from the Colorado State Capitol to the company’s headquarters. Eight protestors blockaded the entrances to the company.
Why, after nearly two years of genocide, after years of escalating surveillance, are people protesting Palantir now? For these organizers, Palantir is a common enemy, bringing together issues like police abolition, imperialism, immigrant rights, privacy, climate justice, and wealth inequality.
“Our consciousnesses are not single-issue,” said Seattle organizer Michael Grant. “Targets like Palantir connect movement struggles across issues in a way that is going to be increasingly important under authoritarianism.” He also pointed out that AI “is being trained at all times across geographies and peoples”: What AI “learns” from dropping bombs on Palestinians will be used to more viciously target immigrants in the U.S., and vice versa.
For these activists, this wave of protests is only the beginning. Organizers at Planet over Profit are inspired by the #TeslaTakedown movement and its work to tank Tesla’s stock price. “When you have really coordinated, disruptive mass resistance,” says Katie Na, “it is actually possible to hurt these companies that see themselves as being untouchable.”
For the organizers at JVP-Seattle (in coalition with the Palestinian-led lobby Washington for Peace and Justice), this action kicks off a campaign pressuring the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) to divest from weapons manufacturers and other companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid and genocide. The WSIB manages investments for Washingtonians including pensions for over 600,000 public employees, publicly supported college savings funds, workers comp and long-term care funds, and trusts for schools across the state. The WSIB has $73.4 million invested in Palantir and millions more in other weapons manufacturers and genocide profiteers including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Caterpillar.
Denver’s protest featured a march from the Colorado State Capitol to the company’s headquarters. Eight protestors blockaded the entrances to the company.
Why, after nearly two years of genocide, after years of escalating surveillance, are people protesting Palantir now? For these organizers, Palantir is a common enemy, bringing together issues like police abolition, imperialism, immigrant rights, privacy, climate justice, and wealth inequality.
“Our consciousnesses are not single-issue,” said Seattle organizer Michael Grant. “Targets like Palantir connect movement struggles across issues in a way that is going to be increasingly important under authoritarianism.” He also pointed out that AI “is being trained at all times across geographies and peoples”: What AI “learns” from dropping bombs on Palestinians will be used to more viciously target immigrants in the U.S., and vice versa.
For these activists, this wave of protests is only the beginning. Organizers at Planet over Profit are inspired by the #TeslaTakedown movement and its work to tank Tesla’s stock price. “When you have really coordinated, disruptive mass resistance,” says Katie Na, “it is actually possible to hurt these companies that see themselves as being untouchable.”
For the organizers at JVP-Seattle (in coalition with the Palestinian-led lobby Washington for Peace and Justice), this action kicks off a campaign pressuring the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) to divest from weapons manufacturers and other companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid and genocide. The WSIB manages investments for Washingtonians including pensions for over 600,000 public employees, publicly supported college savings funds, workers comp and long-term care funds, and trusts for schools across the state. The WSIB has $73.4 million invested in Palantir and millions more in other weapons manufacturers and genocide profiteers including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Caterpillar.
Activists with JVP-Seattle hold a banner that reads “Washington State Out of Genocidal Tech” outside the Palantir Offices in Seattle, Washington, on July 14, 2025.Alex Garland
Michael Grant, a public school teacher, says he’s “only recently connected the dots” between Palantir and retirement funds by doing the research involved in building this campaign. Grant, who says 90 percent of his students are immigrants, called it is “cruel” that his pension is invested in “a company that’s also enabling and accelerating the Trump deportation agenda.”
Other organizers are encouraging tech workers to hold their workplaces accountable. “People inside these institutions are getting the courage to speak up and understanding that they play a role in exposing it from the inside,” says Washington D.C. organizer Hazami Barmada.
Hossam Nasr is an example of this: Microsoft fired him in the fall of 2024 for organizing a vigil for Gaza. He now organizes with No Azure for Apartheid. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing and AI system, which provides (according to Albanese) “virtually government-wide” digital infrastructure for Israel and its military — in particular supporting surveillance. Recent reporting from +972 Magazine revealed that Microsoft created a custom storage system on Azure to host 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data. This data includes as much as 200 million hours of audio of surveilled Palestinian phone calls. Israeli military officials have described cloud services as a “weapon”. Palantir and Microsoft’s technologies work together to power the IOF. To fight back, Nasr says, tech workers can “use [their] privilege of being a worker to fight against these companies from the inside…At No Azure for Apartheid, we are more effective and successful because we have both external and internal pressure.”
No Azure for Apartheid has done just that. On August 19th and 20th, organizers — including current and former employees — created an encampment at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters. They renamed Microsoft’s main plaza the “Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza.” Declaring the protest a “worker intifada”, they called on their fellow employees to join them in demanding that Microsoft cut ties with Israel. Police broke up the protest both days, attacking and arresting 18 on the second day.
Across the nation, these organizers plan to collectively escalate their actions and grow momentum, making it toxic for Palantir and other tech companies to continue facilitating state violence. Nasr says, “I hope that these actions continue to confront and to escalate against these executives and these companies until…these relationships with the genocidal apartheid state of Israel, with ICE, and with fascist states across the world become so untenable it’s actually not profitable anymore. That’s actually the only way to get these companies to bend. That’s what I hope to see.”
This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.
Jesse Roth (she/her) is a writer, theatre artist, and organizer located on Coast Salish and Duwamish lands. Her writing has been published in The Stranger and An Apple a Day. She organizes with JVP-Seattle and writes the newsletter Art Gardening.
Michael Grant, a public school teacher, says he’s “only recently connected the dots” between Palantir and retirement funds by doing the research involved in building this campaign. Grant, who says 90 percent of his students are immigrants, called it is “cruel” that his pension is invested in “a company that’s also enabling and accelerating the Trump deportation agenda.”
Other organizers are encouraging tech workers to hold their workplaces accountable. “People inside these institutions are getting the courage to speak up and understanding that they play a role in exposing it from the inside,” says Washington D.C. organizer Hazami Barmada.
Hossam Nasr is an example of this: Microsoft fired him in the fall of 2024 for organizing a vigil for Gaza. He now organizes with No Azure for Apartheid. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing and AI system, which provides (according to Albanese) “virtually government-wide” digital infrastructure for Israel and its military — in particular supporting surveillance. Recent reporting from +972 Magazine revealed that Microsoft created a custom storage system on Azure to host 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data. This data includes as much as 200 million hours of audio of surveilled Palestinian phone calls. Israeli military officials have described cloud services as a “weapon”. Palantir and Microsoft’s technologies work together to power the IOF. To fight back, Nasr says, tech workers can “use [their] privilege of being a worker to fight against these companies from the inside…At No Azure for Apartheid, we are more effective and successful because we have both external and internal pressure.”
No Azure for Apartheid has done just that. On August 19th and 20th, organizers — including current and former employees — created an encampment at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters. They renamed Microsoft’s main plaza the “Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza.” Declaring the protest a “worker intifada”, they called on their fellow employees to join them in demanding that Microsoft cut ties with Israel. Police broke up the protest both days, attacking and arresting 18 on the second day.
Across the nation, these organizers plan to collectively escalate their actions and grow momentum, making it toxic for Palantir and other tech companies to continue facilitating state violence. Nasr says, “I hope that these actions continue to confront and to escalate against these executives and these companies until…these relationships with the genocidal apartheid state of Israel, with ICE, and with fascist states across the world become so untenable it’s actually not profitable anymore. That’s actually the only way to get these companies to bend. That’s what I hope to see.”
This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.
Jesse Roth (she/her) is a writer, theatre artist, and organizer located on Coast Salish and Duwamish lands. Her writing has been published in The Stranger and An Apple a Day. She organizes with JVP-Seattle and writes the newsletter Art Gardening.
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