No Escape

I’ve been an anarchist since I was a sophomore in high school, so I am fairly well-acquainted with people not sharing my politics, broadly or specifically. But the thing that bothers me more than whether or not someone is ideologically aligned with me is whether or not motherfuckers can be bothered to care. I know I can’t make anyone give a shit about something but Jesus Christ, dude, it’s been nearly three fucking years of being inundated with images and videos and sounds of utter fucking despair from Gaza. There’s a genocide happening in front of us and it seems like it’s not even second or third priority for most of us. And it eats away at me knowing that the broad majority of people I’m supposed to call my peers do not seem to give any shits.

But this isn’t gonna be a condemnation article. I’m not going after any individual or outlet. The problem is broad enough that it encompasses games media, devs, the academic space, and regular-ass gamers themselves. I just want people to care. I want you to give a shit to the extent that you don’t have to be compelled to act ethically by outsiders. I want you to understand what the stakes are and what we can do together. That’s what this post is.

Gaza is being wiped off the map

For 78 years, what once was the state of Palestine, nestled between the Mediterranean Sea and the states of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, has been ruthlessly cut up and segmented into two overlapping and vastly disparate societies: the state of Israel, and the occupied Palestinian Territories in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Millions of Palestinians were killed, imprisoned or forced from their homes in 1948 during the so-called Arab-Israeli War (otherwise known as the Nakba), and since then their captive descendants have lived in what is essentially an open-air prison in Gaza, and as an oppressed second-class people, barely citizens, in the West Bank. Israel has been fighting to keep Palestine suppressed for several decades, while every attempt Palestinians have made to return to their ancestral homes, get out from under the Israeli boot, or simply regain some dignity in their lives has been labeled as acts of terrorism.

Since October 8, 2023, the Israeli military has besieged and bombed Gaza so extensively that cities and towns in the region have been reduced to desolate flatlands. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are dead or missing, with the most conservative death tolls hitting around 72,000 people killed. The survivors of these campaigns of destruction have further suffered from profound famine and debilitating illness. The UN, as well as multiple international human rights organizations operating in the region, has called the systematic bombing and starving of Gazans a genocide. The Israeli military regularly intercepts and prevents external food and medical aid from entering Gaza.

All of this is happening because on October 7, 2023, Hamas, a terrorist group that also happens to be the governing faction of the Gaza Strip (thanks in no small part to Israel’s documented manipulation of the politics in what remains of Palestinian society) carried out an attack on an Israeli music festival that resulted in the deaths of nearly 1200 Israelis and to roughly 250 hostages taken by the group. The resultant retaliation by the Israeli state went well beyond any semblance of a reasonable response to the violent act and almost immediately turned into collective punishment. Israeli politicians have regularly been caught on camera in the months and years since the start of the so-called “Gaza War” gleefully indulging in anti-Palestinian and genocidal rhetoric, and laws passed by the Israeli state in recent months have even called for the reinstatement of the death penalty within their carceral system—but only for Palestinians.

Even though multiple cases accusing Israel of genocide have been brought to the International Criminal Court, and even though there is widespread condemnation of the Israeli state’s actions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been shielded from consequences by the United States. Additionally, the US has provided Israel with weaponry, funding and veto power since the genocide began—a genocide funded directly by American tax dollars. Additionally, Israel has long been aided in its oppressive aims against Palestinians by corporate backers in tech, commodities and other industries—a pattern which certainly has not ceased because of the genocide.

People have been protesting against this genocide

Since almost immediately following October 7, people have been speaking out against the Israeli response to Hamas’s attack, and especially raising their voices once it became clear that Israel was committing a genocide. Student organizations, leftist groups of all kinds, peace activists and representatives from human rights organizations have marched, occupied academic institutions, and prevented arms shipments from leaving key supplier warehouses and workers from reaching their desks at weapons manufacturers. This social and economic disruption has made small gains, but the so-called American state’s support for Israel remains unwavering. Humanitarian flotillas have attempted to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza multiple times. Electorally, movements have started running candidates that aren’t supported by AIPAC, the largest pro-Israeli political action committee in the US, to primary and run against politicians who are. And on various social media sites you can find users sharing and donating to the gofundme accounts of individual Gazans seeking help escaping from the Strip, getting medical care for themselves or their children, or simply trying to afford what little food they can access.

In the US, many of the groups that have protested and are continuing to raise their voices against genocide have been met with intense repression from police, academic administrations and state and federal politicians, with some activists even facing imprisonment and deportation over their stances, like Mahmoud Kahlil and Rümeysa Öztürk. Meanwhile, overseas in places like the UK, the state has made support of the group Palestine Action a criminal offense resulting in jail time for over 3,300 people; 1200 people have been charged with terrorism-related offenses, and from November 2025 to January 2026, eight prisoners went on a hunger strike in protest of the draconian laws. And even in Israel, mandatory service-age young people have refused to join the military in protest of the genocide, resulting in their imprisonment.

The destruction of Gaza continues despite so-called ceasefires

Since 2025 the Trump regime, despite being fully in support of Netanyahu’s government and its efforts to wipe the Palestinian population from the face of the earth, has nevertheless sought “ceasefires” between Israel and the largely-defenseless Palestinians, with the most recent “ceasefire” holding since October 2025. Despite these ceasefires putting an end to the fighting until larger peace agreements can be brokered, that hasn’t stopped Israeli aggression in practice. Drone bombings and sniper attacks largely continued all through the fall and winter, and when Trump decided to go to war with Iran alongside Israel, Israel began bombing other countries like Lebanon.

In other words, now not only are Gazans in constant grave danger, but innocent people in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region are also suffering from the actions of the Israeli government, which the US, despite being its largest backer and supposedly “in control” of its client state, cannot seem to prevent them from taking.

How does this involve video games?

Since July 2005, an organization called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, founded by Qatari-Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti and Ingrid Gassner-Jaradat, has been trying to put economic and social pressure on Israel and its state, corporate and academic supporters to stop enabling and enforcing apartheid, and now genocide, in the occupied Palestinian Territories. The organization has three overarching goals in its demands to Israel:

• Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
• Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
• Respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

Further, this is what the BDS movement calls for, more broadly, in their own words:

In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and

Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate, and effective remedies; and

Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights, and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine; and

In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment, and sanctions; and Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression;

We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.

In 2025, The Palestinian BDS National Committee made Microsoft, already one of its tech targets, a major priority target in light of new information revealing the extent of the company’s involvement with the Israeli military. It set specific boycott parameters, and established a letter-writing campaign for consumers to ensure their voices were heard at the company. Here is the full text of the BDS movement’s call to boycott Microsoft.

Take Action

• As a consumer, boycott Microsoft products whenever possible. Here are some examples:
  • Microsoft Gaming products (Xbox, Bethesda Softworks Activision Blizzard King)
    • Cancel Xbox Game Pass Subscription
    • Uninstall & boycott key games owned by the company such as Minecraft, Call of Duty, Candy Crush, etc.
    • Boycott Xbox Platform (e.g. Xbox Console or Xbox App on PC) & Hardware (Consoles, Controllers, Headsets, etc.).
  • Microsoft Surface Hardware (Laptops, Headsets, accessories). 
  • Microsoft AI / Copilot:
    • Avoid using Microsoft’s AI Copilot standalone app or extensions in Bing, Edge, Windows, Office, etc.
    • Change your Microsoft 365 subscription to avoid paying for Microsoft’s AI / Copilot (e.g. change from “Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Microsoft 365 Copilot” plan to “Microsoft 365 Business Basic” plan).
  • Microsoft Operating System, Office Suit, Browser, Search services and other tools (Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Bing, MSN, Teams, Skype etc.). Consider switching free and open software instead of another, possibly complicit company. 

• As a consumer, sign the workers’ petition at: noaa.cc/sign and send a letter to Microsoft executives demanding that Microsoft end its complicity in Israel’s AI-powered genocide of Palestinians at noaa.cc/letter.
• If you are a student or faculty member, join or start a campaign to pressure your university to cut ties with Microsoft by divesting from the company and ending institutional contracts when possible, exclude Microsoft from career fairs. Also, peacefully disrupt Microsoft sponsored hackathons and events.
• Pressure your local government to divest from Microsoft, cut contracts with the company and divest local Pride and other celebrations from Microsoft as an intersectional commitment to ending complicity in Israeli apartheid and Pinkwashing. 
• If you are an academic or involved in a civil society organization, get involved in the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s policy related work on regulating AI and cloud as dual use by contacting [email protected].
• If you are a Microsoft worker (full-time, contract, intern, etc.) or work for any of Microsoft’s subsidiaries, sign the internal worker petition at noaa.cc/petition, join the No Azure for Apartheid campaign by filling out this form: noaa.cc/join or contact the campaign at [email protected]. 

Divest from Microsoft and its subsidiaries.

In the fall of 2025, an independent organization, No Games For Genocide, was formed to reiterate this boycott call, but explicitly in terms of the games industry. Its exhortation was for “game workers, journalists, streamers, and people who play games to boycott as many Microsoft products as feasible until it stops being complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.” Three thousand individuals and organizations lent their signatures to the group’s call to action, including Youtube games journalists People Make Games, whose video on this boycott call also raised nearly $60,000 for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. (I was approached by No Games For Genocide to be an early signatory and gladly signed my name.) NGFG has actions for every stratum of games culture participant to take, from gamer to developer, and relevant to what we do here at No Escape was its call to journalists:

If you run a video game outlet or are an editor

• Halt all coverage of Xbox published games. If you are a site that writes about them, we urge you to move away from as much coverage of Xbox-published games as possible, ideally moving towards ending all coverage. This is clearly not a simple task, and not one we expect to be done overnight. Still, if we continue to cover Xbox-published games uncritically, it signals to Microsoft that it can aid and abet genocide unchallenged. It should be noted that coverage of any unions formed at a Microsoft-owned company, reports of layoffs, or other worker-related stories should continue, as it’s important that we continue to express solidarity with the workers at these studios.

If you are a full time journalist

• Refuse to cover any Xbox-published games. The games industry is large and varied, and there is always something else that can be covered. Explain to your managing editors that going forwards you will not cover Xbox-published games, whether that be through news pieces, or interviews and features.
• If you have to cover Xbox-published games, always do so with context about Microsoft’s activities and the ongoing boycott. Just because you may be in a position where you have to cover these games, it doesn’t mean you can’t make people aware of the boycott against Microsoft called for by BDS. Be constructive and thoughtful in your criticism, and help people understand that by purchasing an Xbox-published game, or by subscribing to Game Pass, they are supporting a company that is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinian people.
• Outlets that are unionised or plans to unionise should ensure that you have the right to refuse to cover certain topics as part of the collective bargaining process. As workers, journalists may not always have all of the editorial control they might like. This is why it is important to take the steps to unionise, and make guarantees that you do not have to provide coverage for aspects of the industry you are opposed to.

If you are a freelance journalist

• Do not cover Microsoft’s games, cover other games instead. As a freelancer, you’ll likely be trying to cover any of the biggest games at any given moment. At a time where budgets are incredibly low, you’ll also likely be trying to just get any coverage at all. Even so, wherever possible, you should try to only cover non-Xbox-published games.

While I’ve been participating in the larger BDS boycott since April 2025, this call really drives the point home, which is why I haven’t accepted any pitches or written/run any stories about games made by Xbox-owned studios in over a year. Even last year, when I last tried doing coverage of Summer Game Fest and its surrounding avalanche of trailer dumps and special showcases, I refused to cover the Xbox Showcase. Insofar as any of my work could be considered marketing by any of these ghouls, I simply won’t do it.

Why any of this matters

For all of the apparent evidence to the contrary, I believe that people who play video games are fully-functioning members of society who are capable of taking ethical stances on things, are able to hold onto concrete principles, and for whom the promise of future fleeting pleasures will not simply override those stances at the first opportunity. I think more highly of gamers than that. I want to believe that for any ethical problem we might face—whether it’s the genocide of an entire people or something like not supporting war profiteers or people who enslave others, or even something as relatively small by comparison as using generative AI—we can face it with maturity and consistency, and not give up because we don’t get immediate results.

Gaming is not taken as seriously as a sector of culture that adults participate in as other cultural media. It is very rare for anyone outside of right-wing grifters to ask gamers to do anything. And since April of last year, BDS has actively invited gamers onto a grander stage than we’ve ever been invited to before. We’ve been asked to participate in what might be our favorite thing outside of difficulty discourse—console wars! If for no other reason than like three-quarters of gamers have already been preparing for this moment since the 2000s, we should all be chomping at the bit to tell Xbox to fuck off.

Bad jokes aside, ultimately, I want Palestinians to live. There is no greater moral or ethical imperative I can think of right now. I want them to live. I want their killers to stop killing. I want their friends and relatives on distant shores to be able to come home. And all I have to do to try to help that vision come true is to simply stop paying attention to fuckin’ Microsoft.

What I want from you

This article has a few audiences. One of those audiences is people who have been following the boycott since it was called and who are feeling shunned or silly for continuing to bring it up to seemingly indifferent ears. Another audience is people within games media who have either fully or selectively ignored the call for a boycott of Microsoft for whatever reason. A third audience is people who are confused about what exactly a boycott entails, who are unsure what they should be doing generally. And the final audience is coming to this boycott completely unawares. To each of you I have different, if similar messages.

To the people who have kept their promises and feel kinda silly about it, we have to keep doing what we’re doing. We’re right to do it. We’re standing in solidarity with people who really fucking need it right now. Don’t waver, even if it feels like everything you’re saying is falling on cold and uncaring ears.

To the people who didn’t know that a boycott was happening, I hope you’ve found this post educational, and I hope you’ll join us in boycotting Microsoft, Xbox, Game Pass and its assorted first-party and subsidiary studios. People may tell you differently and try to persuade you into thinking these kinds of actions simply don’t matter and won’t help, but it is no small thing for you to give up a piece of something you love in order to try to make the world better for everyone. That is what it means to be a person of conscience: to exchange a little bit of comfort for a much better future.

To the people confused about what constitutes a boycott in this case, I hope this post has clarified things for you, and I also hope that some stress has fallen from your shoulders with the improved clarity. This boycott is structured for you to take the actions that you can; even if you can’t do everything, like get away from Microsoft Teams (same, bestie), doing what you can will help send the message just as effectively.

Finally, to the people who have purposely ignored the boycott or who feel that they don’t have to honor it: all I can say is that I hope you change your mind. I hope you can eventually learn to give more of a shit about people, especially people trying to survive a genocide, than you do about video games.