Brian Eno pleads with Microsoft to cut ties with Israel and pledges to donate Windows 95 royalties to Gaza
Brian Eno has issued an open letter to Microsoft demanding that the technology company cut its ties to Israel amid their ongoing war on Palestine.
In 1995, Eno was tasked with creating the chime that plays whenever Windows 95 is loaded on a computer. As a result of this partnership, he feels compelled to speak out against Microsoft’s relations with the Israeli regime.
Eno has also committed to donating his royalties from the theme, which was recently inducted into the National Recording Registry, to victims in Gaza.
In the open letter, titled ‘Not In My Name’, Eno wrote for Stop the War Coalition: “In the mid-1990s, I was asked to compose a short piece of music for Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system. Millions – possibly even billions – of people have since heard that short start-up chime—which represented a gateway to a promising technological future. I gladly took on the project as a creative challenge and enjoyed the interaction with my contacts at the company. I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war.”
Eno continued: “Today, I’m compelled to speak, not as a composer this time, but as a citizen alarmed by the role Microsoft is playing in a very different kind of composition: one that leads to surveillance, violence, and destruction in Palestine.”
The pioneering musician then cited a blog post from earlier this month in which he claims “Microsoft acknowledged that it provides Israel’s Ministry of Defence with ‘software, professional services, Azure cloud services and Azure AI services, including language translation’.”
He passionately continued: “Selling and facilitating advanced AI and cloud services to a government engaged in systematic ethnic cleansing is not ‘business as usual’. It is complicity. If you knowingly build systems that can enable war crimes, you inevitably become complicit in those crimes.”
The artist then said a company with the power of Microsoft should come with “absolute ethical responsibility” and he encourages “Microsoft to suspend all services that support any operations that contribute to violations of international law”.
Eno added: “My new start up chime is this: stand in solidarity with the brave Microsoft workers who have done something truly disruptive and refused to stay silent. They risk their livelihoods for people who have lost and will continue to lose their lives. I invite artists, technologists, musicians, and all people of conscience to join me in this call.”
The English musician concluded by promising: “I also pledge that the fee I originally received for that Windows 95 chime will now go towards helping the victims of the attacks on Gaza. If a sound can signal a real change then let it be this one.”
Eno, who is set to release two collaborative albums with Beatie Wolfe next month, has been a vocal supporter of Palestine for many years and recently called upon Field Day to condemn their owners, KKR.
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