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Employee Action: Internal Advocacy Guide

A playbook for people working inside companies that supply Israel's military and occupation. Protect yourself, build the evidence, organise your colleagues, and take it to the people who can end the contract.

10 steps in 3 phases
10 minute read
For employees and contractors

Start here: protect yourself Find your employer

Core principle: inside the company, use the language of material risk, compliance and fiduciary duty. The goal is to trigger due diligence and a decision, not to win an argument in a meeting.

Why this matters

Israel's assault on Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. The International Court of Justice found a real and imminent risk to the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide, and ordered Israel to prevent them. In September 2025 the UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The army it found to be doing it runs on software, cloud computing, components and finance bought from companies around the world, and the people who work for those companies are among the few who can see the contracts from the inside.

Employees add to the pressure on their companies. Microsoft workers organised for more than a year against its Israeli military contracts. In September 2025, after press reporting and an external review, Microsoft disabled the services Israeli military intelligence used to store recordings of intercepted Palestinian phone calls. The authoritative determinations page sets out what courts and UN bodies have found.

Phase 1

Prepare

1. Protect yourself

Exposing your company's part in Israel's crimes is in the public interest, and you can do it safely. A few habits keep you and your colleagues protected.

Use personal devices and accounts. Organise on your own phone and email, not on work email, chat or file storage.
Keep a record. Dated notes of what you have seen and who you raised it with, and copies of the evidence you have access to in your role, stored away from work systems.
Whistleblowing law is on your side. Many countries protect workers who disclose wrongdoing in the public interest. A union or, in the UK, the charity Protect can tell you how it applies to you.
Report to us in confidence. Our report form encrypts what you send in your browser, and we never publish anything that could identify a source.
Protect colleagues too. Do not name people who have spoken to you in confidence.
Security-classified work. National security laws treat classified material separately, so take legal advice before sharing it.

2. Frame it as material risk

Inside the company, the case that moves Legal and Compliance is the one framed in their terms. The Four Pillars of Material Risk give you the vocabulary.

"This is controversial and makes us look bad."

"This exposure creates legal, financial, operational and reputational risk under the Four Pillars of Material Risk."

"We shouldn't be working with Israel."

"Our human rights policy commits us to the UN Guiding Principles. Has this contract had the due diligence they require?"

"Everyone can see what is happening in Gaza."

"The UN Commission of Inquiry found in September 2025 that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. What has Legal advised about our exposure?"

3. Map the decision chain

Find out who can actually change policy or end a relationship. Start with governance roles, then the people who own the work.

Board and audit committee

Oversight of material risk and compliance.

Ask: Has the board been told about this exposure?

General counsel and compliance

Legal exposure and due diligence obligations.

Ask: What legal advice has been taken on this contract?

Procurement and supply chain

Contracts, vendors and supplier risk.

Ask: When does the contract renew, and on what terms can it end?

Investor relations and ESG

Ratings, disclosures and reputational impact.

Ask: How would we answer an investor who asked about this?

Business unit leaders

Revenue owners with authority to pause or exit programmes.

Ask: What would it take to pause this work?

4. Build the evidence packet

Credibility depends on evidence. Keep it short and sourced.

Start with your employer's profile. If it is in the company directory, the evidence, decision-makers and risk arguments are already written and sourced.
The company's own commitments. Its human rights policy, supplier code of conduct and ESG statements. These are public, and quoting them back is the strongest move you have.
An exposure map. The contracts, partnerships, subsidiaries or suppliers linked to the Israeli military or to the occupied Palestinian territory, drawn from public sources and your own notes.
The legal context. The Legal Framework Guide sets out the rulings and obligations that apply.

Phase 2

Organise

5. Build an internal coalition

A request from many colleagues behind one professional ask is harder to dismiss than a lone voice.

Start with quiet one-to-one conversations, away from work systems, to find allies.
Bring in employee networks and resource groups where it is safe to do so. Google workers held vigils for Mai Ubeid, a Palestinian software engineer trained at the Google-funded Gaza Sky Geeks coding school, who was killed with her family in an Israeli air strike in October 2023.
If there is a union, talk to its representatives early. Acting collectively, through a union or with colleagues, can carry legal protection that acting alone does not.

6. Draft a one-page brief

Pick your company and answer three questions. The brief writes itself from the evidence on the company's profile; edit it as you like before you send it.

Your company What work concerns you? (optional) Send it to Signed by (optional)

Your brief

Choose your company above to see the brief.

Phase 3

Escalate

7. Climb the escalation ladder

Use internal channels first. At every step, note the date, who you spoke to and what they said.

1 Manager and team lead

Ask for a risk review of the specific contract or product.
2 Ethics line or HR

Raise a concern that cites the policy commitments the work conflicts with.
3 Compliance and Legal

Ask for enhanced human rights due diligence, in writing.
4 Executive or board

Ask for formal oversight and a response plan with a date.

8. Anticipate pushback

The objections are predictable: "we don't take political positions", "we follow all applicable laws", "our products are used for defensive purposes". Prepare your answers in advance with the Objection Handling Guide, and keep bringing the conversation back to the company's own commitments and its legal exposure.

9. When internal channels fail

If the channels are blocked or ignored, you have done what the company asked of you. Take it outside.

Report to us securely

Send documents, photos and notes through our encrypted form. Remove file metadata and use a personal device on a personal network. We never publish anything that could identify you.

Get support

A union, an employment lawyer or, in the UK, the whistleblowing charity Protect can advise you on how the law protects you.

Keep your record

Your dated notes of each step show the company was told and chose not to act.

10. What success looks like

Formal launch of enhanced human rights due diligence.
Suspension or exit of high-risk contracts or partnerships.
Board-level oversight and a published remediation plan.
Clear internal guidance on ethical boundaries and supplier expectations.

It can happen

Israeli military intelligence stored recordings of millions of intercepted Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft's Azure cloud. Microsoft workers organised as No Azure for Apartheid held vigils, sit-ins and protests for more than a year. On 25 September 2025, after reporting by the Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call and an external review, Microsoft ceased and disabled the services that unit used. The rest of its Israeli military contract continues.

Read the Microsoft profile

Last updated: October 2026

Is your employer in the directory?

Its profile has the evidence, the decision-makers and the risk arguments, ready to use.

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