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Microsoft Accused of Antisemitic Discrimination
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
Microsoft Corporation denies Jews the right to form ethnic affinity groups despite maintaining a robust system of them for other identity categories, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law has alleged in a blistering letter urging the tech giant to correct what it says constitutes a flagrant violation of civil rights meriting legal action.
According to the letter, Microsoft employees may join Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) which correspond to “ethnic or racial identity” and foster “extra opportunities for professional development, career advancement, and the ability to collectively oppose discrimination in the workplace.” However, the company rules out Judaism as the basis for starting a Jewish ERG, nor does it recognize Jews, as does the US government, as an ancestral group. Thus, Jews at Microsoft are excluded from a form of social networking that can boost a career at the company to the highest levels of success, according the Brandeis Center.
“Providing all employees equal access to professional benefits and opportunities, including Microsoft’s Jewish employees, is the right thing to do and is compelled by various federal and local anti-discrimination statutes,” said Brandeis Center co-chair Kenneth Marcus, who served as assistant civil rights secretary in the US Education Department under former President George W. Bush. “This discrimination must stop.”
ERGs also act as advocacy groups which combat discrimination, the Brandeis Center argues in the letter, providing employees a peer group which shares “their lived workplace experiences.” Additionally, the groups facilitate “corporate charitable giving” to community organizations providing essential social services and “educational events.” The groups further receive copious funding from the Microsoft Corporation’s department of human resources, an indicator of upper management’s faith in their purported missions.
“Jewish Microsoft employees are only permitted to organize themselves as an ‘Employee Community,’ a structure vastly inferior to an ERG in multiple ways,” the letter states. “Employee Communities receive no funding and only limited support from Human Resources and are not allowed to host educational events, participate in inclusive product design programs, or fork with external groups outside of the annual Microsoft Give campaign.”
It continues, “Moreover, Microsoft’s insistence on defining Jewish identity inconsistent with its Jewish employees’ own self-definition has contributed to an environment that many Jews at Microsoft view as indifferent to antisemitism at best and antisemitically [sic] hostile at worst. Surely a Jewish ERG at Microsoft could have helped Microsoft avoid repeatedly failing to issue appropriate statements condemning rising antisemitism similar to its statements concerning other -isms, and failing to recognize important events in the Jewish calendar as Microsoft does for employees of other identities.”
On Wednesday, the author of the letter, Rory Lancman, who is the Brandeis Center’s senior counsel and director of corporate initiatives, implored Microsoft to accept that “Jewish employees have the same professional needs and aspirations as other ethnic minorities.”
He added, “Instead of dictating the terms of Jewish identity to its Jewish employees, Microsoft should listen to them and accept that to be Jewish is to be part of a people, not merely a faith … [They] can’t be denied those same opportunities to express themselves collectively about antisemitism, seek a better working environment, and achieve professional advancement.”
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Jewish professionals are increasingly experiencing workplace discrimination, as previously reported by The Algemeiner.
Earlier this month, a New York area labor union was accused of enabling antisemitic discrimination in complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), both US government agencies.
Submitted by the Brandeis Center, the complaints charge that the New York Legal Assistance Group’s (NYLAG) union — A Better NYLAG (ABN) — “actively obstructed” measures that would have reduced antisemitic activity at the nonprofit, which receives copious public funding from the local government. After nearly two years of alleged abuses and smear campaigns, the Brandeis Center said, Jewish NYLAG employees are seeking a legal remedy as a last resort to protect their rights and save an institution at risk of losing its reputation for fostering justice and equality before the law.
Antisemitism, allegedly, emerged at NYLAG and ABN following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, with employees using the workspace as a platform for endorsing the terrorist organization’s atrocities of rape and murder of the young and elderly. After, for example, NYLAG attempted to console Jewish employees by sending an email which acknowledged the severity of Hamas’s violence, ABN followed up by accusing Israel of “occupation and war crimes.” Such behavior continued in different forms at NYLAG, wholly endorsed by ABN, the Brandeis Center said.
At one point, a NYLAG employee allegedly distributed buttons which said, “Resisting colonialism is not terrorism.” Soon, pro-Hamas arts and crafts began appearing in NYLAG common spaces. “Respect existence or expect resistance,” said one homemade poster to which its creator clipped red and green butterflies. “Long live the resistance,” said another. Facing a deluge of complaints from outraged Jewish employees, NYLAG’s general counsel imposed a neutrality policy on the organization’s common spaces, forbidding partisan political expression that deviated from its purpose.
Rather than facilitating the policy’s success as an antidiscrimination measure, ABN, a chapter of United Autoworkers of America (UAW), accused the nonprofit of violating the “the National Labor Relations Act, which protects our right to protest unfair working conditions” and declared its intent to “file an unfair labor practice” charge against it. Avoiding a protracted legal fight with its own union, NYLAG never enforced the rule despite pleas from Jewish employees.
Meanwhile, antisemitism in academic medical centers located on college campuses is fostering noxious environments which deprive Jewish health-care professionals of their civil right to work in spaces free from discrimination and hate, according to a new study by the StandWithUs Data & Analytics Department.
Titled “Antisemitism in American Healthcare: The Role of Workplace Environment,” the study includes survey data showing that 62.8 percent of Jewish health-care professionals employed by campus-based medical centers reported experiencing antisemitism, a far higher rate than those working in private practice and community hospitals. Fueling the rise in hate, it added, were repeated failures of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives to educate workers about antisemitism, increasing, the report said, the likelihood of antisemitic activity.
“Academia today is increasingly cultivating an environment which is hostile to Jews, as well as members of other religious and ethnic groups,” StandWithUs director of data and analytics and study co-author Alexandra Fishman said in a statement. “Academic institutions should be upholding the integrity of scholarship, prioritizing civil discourse, rather than allowing bias or personal agendas to guide academic culture.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Microsoft Accused of Antisemitic Discrimination first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Al Jazeera Hit With Defamation Lawsuit by Syrian Jewish Ex-Refugee
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
A defamation lawsuit was filed against the Qatar-based Al Jazeera media network on Wednesday by Abraham Hamra, a Syrian pro-Israel advocate and lawyer.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Hamra “is a Jewish refugee from Syria, born in Damascus. He fled Syria with his parents and siblings in 1994 at the age of eight, following the partial lifting of restrictions on Jewish emigration by the Syrian regime under President Hafez al-Assad in 1992.”
The Algemeiner obtained a copy of the complaint, which explains that, on Aug. 25, Al Jazeera posted a video claiming that Hamra was paid by the Israeli government to visit an aid site of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel- and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, operating independently from UN-backed mechanisms.
“This accusation is false in its entirety. Plaintiff has never received any payment, compensation, or financial incentive from the Israeli government or any affiliated entity for visiting aid sites in Gaza,” the lawsuit claims.
“The visit by Plaintiff related to Israel and Gaza was undertaken independently, in his personal capacity, on his own dime, as an advocate for his community and to bear witness against misinformation,” the suit continues.
The UN and critics of Israel have expressed concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach one of its four food distribution points, at times creating chaotic scenes where Israeli forces have used gunfire to control the crowd.
However, supporters of the GHF argue that it bypasses the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which often steals humanitarian supplies for its own purposes and sells the rest at inflated prices. The GHF has called on the UN to publicly condemn the killing of aid workers in Gaza and to collaborate in order to provide relief to the enclave’s population, accusing the UN of perpetuating a “vast disinformation campaign” aimed at tarnishing the foundation’s image.
The lawsuit notes that the social media post from Al Jazeera, which included the image of Hamra, “cites no sources for the ‘reportedly paid’ claim, and publicly available information about Plaintiff, including his professional bio, social media posts, and known activities, demonstrates he is an independent US attorney with no financial ties to foreign governments.”
Al Jazeera also “failed to conduct even basic fact-checking, such as contacting Plaintiff for comment or verifying the allegation, despite their status as a major media network with resources to do so,” according to the lawsuit.
Al Jazeera did not respond to a request for comment from The Algemeiner.
The lawsuit argues why the allegedly false claim rises to the level of libel, saying it “constitutes libel per se under New York law because it accuses Plaintiff of committing a serious crime, namely, violating FARA [the Foreign Agents Registration Act] by acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Israel, and tends to injure him in his profession as a lawyer.”
“FARA requires individuals acting as agents of foreign principals to register with the US Department of Justice, and failure to do so is a federal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment,” the suit says. “By falsely alleging Plaintiff was paid by a foreign government to promote its interests, the statement implies criminal conduct and undermines his professional integrity.”
Consequently, Hamra is seeking payment for damages of at least $1,00,000 and requesting a trial by jury.
Read the lawsuit here: Hamra v Al Jazeera ECF No. 1 Complaint
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US Lawmakers Launch Investigation Into Wikipedia Over Claims of Systemic Anti-Israel Bias
US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Photo: Reuters
The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has opened an investigation into the nonprofit that operates the Wikipedia website, demanding answers over concerns that hostile foreign actors are exploiting the popular online encyclopedia to spread anti-Israel propaganda and antisemitic narratives.
Republican Reps James Comer (KY), who chairs the committee, and Nancy Mace (SC), who chairs the panel’s subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology, and government innovation, on Wednesday sent a letter to Maryana Iskander, chief executive of the Wikimedia Foundation, asking the nonprofit to turn over records showing how the platform polices disinformation campaigns that target articles related to Israel and the Middle East.
The lawmakers cited studies showing that pro-Russia networks and other state-backed operations have sought to manipulate Wikipedia entries on conflicts involving Israel, often by inserting anti-Israel or antisemitic framing designed to sway Western audiences. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for example, published a report earlier this year arguing that “malicious” Wikipedia editors have inserted anti-Israel bias onto the site, oftentimes violating the organization’s neutrality policies in the process.
Meanwhile, a report from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab found evidence of Russian-linked attempts to shape narratives used to train AI chatbots by twisting information about Israel.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the efforts of foreign operations and individuals at academic institutions subsidized by US taxpayer dollars to influence US public opinion,” Comer and Mace wrote. They emphasized the importance of stopping organized attempts to “inject bias into important and sensitive topics.”
Specifically, the committee is demanding records on possible coordination by nation-states or academic institutions to influence Wikipedia pages, internal arbitration files documenting how the site has handled editor misconduct, identifying data for accounts flagged for suspicious activity, and any analysis showing patterns of manipulation tied to antisemitism or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The letter also requests details of Wikipedia’s editorial policies to ensure neutrality and prevent the spread of bias.
Although the committee acknowledged that most online platforms face disinformation threats, the letter stressed that Wikipedia’s outsized influence as one of the most visited websites in the world and a key training source for artificial intelligence systems makes it especially important to prevent anti-Israel narratives from taking root unchecked.
The Wikimedia Foundation has previously stated that it takes action against volunteer editors who violate neutrality rules, but lawmakers say further transparency is needed to guarantee accountability.
However, a detailed investigation by Pirate Wires in October 2024 revealed that a powerful group of roughly 40 Wikipedia editors coordinated to “delegitimize Israel, present radical Islamist groups in a favorable light, and reshape the narrative around Israel with alarming influence,” particularly after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. Notably, one editor removed mention of Hamas’s 1988 charter, which calls for the killing of Jews and the destruction of Israel, from the Hamas article just six weeks after the attack. The group also reportedly sought to suppress documented human-rights abuses by Iran, and a related effort by a Discord-based collective known as “Tech For Palestine” coordinated mass editing of articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to a report by the Jewish Journal, Wikipedia’s arbitration committee (ArbCom) permanently banned two editors outright for engaging in off-platform coordination tied to the “Tech for Palestine” Discord campaign, citing violations of policies. Additionally, the committee imposed indefinite topic bans on eight editors in the Israeli-Palestinian area for disruptive behavior such as non-neutral editing, personal insults, and misrepresentation of sources. In December 2024, ArbCom permanently banned two anti-Israel editors and placed restrictions on three others for violation of site policies in the Israeli-Palestinian topic area.
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Tunisian Brothers to Face Trial for Cutting Down Olive Tree Honoring Murdered Jew Ilan Halimi in France
A crowd gathers at the Jardin Ilan Halimi in Paris on Feb. 14, 2021, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Halimi’s kidnapping and murder. Photo: Reuters/Xose Bouzas/Hans Lucas
Two Tunisian twin brothers have been arrested in France after allegedly cutting down an olive tree that had been planted to honor Ilan Halimi, a young French Jewish man tortured to death nearly a decade ago.
According to the Bobigny prosecutor’s office, two 19-year-old undocumented men with prior convictions for theft and violence were arrested for vandalizing Halimi’s memorial in the northern Paris suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine.
Both brothers appeared in criminal court on Wednesday and were remanded in custody pending their trial, scheduled for Oct. 22.
They will face trial on charges of “aggravated destruction of property” and “desecration of a monument dedicated to the memory of the dead on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion,” offenses that, according to prosecutors, carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.
Both suspects were taken into custody around noon on Monday while returning to the crime scene, French media reported.
Investigators tracked them down after discovering two slices of watermelon left by the perpetrators at the base of the olive tree, which contained their DNA.
Halimi was abducted, held captive, and tortured in January 2006 by a gang of about 20 people in a low-income housing estate in the Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Three weeks later, Halimi was found in Essonne, south of Paris, naked, gagged, and handcuffed, with clear signs of torture and burns. The 23-year-old died on the way to the hospital.
In 2011, an olive tree was planted in Halimi’s memory. Earlier this month, the memorial was found felled — probably with a chainsaw — in the northern Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine.
Halimi’s memory has faced attacks before, with two other trees planted in his honor vandalized in 2019 in Essonne, where he was found dying near a railway track.
Hervé Chevreau, the mayor of Épinay, announced that a new memorial tree will be planted in the second half of September.
After the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the incident, vowing that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
“Felling the tree in honor of Ilan Halimi is a second attempt on his life,” the French leader said in a post on X.
Halimi’s sister, Anne-Laure Abitbol, also condemned the incident, warning that public denunciations are no longer enough and calling for concrete action.
“In France, we are no longer safe, neither alive nor dead,” Abitbol told RTL in an interview.
“I feel less safe in France,” she said. “By recognizing a Palestinian state, Macron is encouraging antisemitism and failing to take action against antisemitic attacks in the country.”
Last month, Macron announced that France will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September as part of its “commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Israeli officials have criticized the move, which was followed by several other Western countries, calling it a “reward for terrorism.”
France’s Jewish community has faced a troubling surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Jewish leaders have consistently called on authorities to take swift action against the rising wave of targeted attacks and anti-Jewish hate crimes they continue to face.
According to the French Interior Ministry, 646 antisemitic incidents were recorded from January to June this year — a drop from the previous year’s first-half record high but a 112.5 percent increase compared with the same period in 2023, when 304 incidents were reported.