Microsoft has ended access to its cloud and AI services for a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defense, following revelations that the technologies were used to conduct large-scale surveillance on Palestinian civilians. The decision, first reported by The Guardian and later confirmed by Microsoft.
The move follows an internal review, triggered by The Guardian’s prior report and growing pressure from employees and investors concerned about the company’s role in the ongoing conflict in Gaza. According to reports, Israel’s Unit 8200 had been storing a massive trove of intercepted communications, including millions of phone calls from Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
Internal documents suggested the programme, active since 2021, aimed to record “a million calls an hour.” Sources claim Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella personally approved the storage arrangement after meeting with Israeli officials, giving them a segregated Azure environment to hold the data without consent from those being surveilled.
Microsoft’s vice-chair and president Brad Smith informed employees of the company’s latest move in an internal memo, stating that it had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense.” This includes access to cloud storage and certain AI technologies. He reiterated Microsoft’s longstanding stance that it “does not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians” and stressed that this principle has been applied consistently worldwide for over two decades.
While the suspension impacts the surveillance-focused unit, Microsoft confirmed that other agreements with the Israeli government remain intact. Smith clarified that the decision “does not impact the important work that Microsoft continues to do to protect the cybersecurity of Israel and other countries in the Middle East, including under the Abraham Accords.”
Meanwhile, Israel has allegedly begun migrating the data off Azure, The Guardian reports. Around 8TB of recordings were moved within days of the revelations, with Unit 8200 planning to transfer the data to Amazon Web Services instead. Amazon has not commented on whether it has agreed to host the information.
(Source: Microsoft [official blog] / The Guardian)
