Microsoft Finally Blocks Israeli Military From Using Its Tech To Spy on Palestinians

By Elijah Gonzalez  |  September 25, 2025 | 3:34pm
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Microsoft Finally Blocks Israeli Military From Using Its Tech To Spy on Palestinians

According to the Guardian, Microsoft has finally cut off the Israeli military’s access to technology it used to carry out the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Based on their sources, Microsoft told Israeli officials late last week that it was shutting down access after concluding that one of Israel’s surveillance agencies, Unit 8200, had violated the Azure cloud platform’s terms of service by using this technology to store and process millions of phone calls captured without consent. This relationship between Microsoft and the Israeli military is one of the primary reasons that the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has boycotted Microsoft’s Xbox products.

In August, a joint investigation between the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found that Unit 8200 had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store and process the previously mentioned recordings. This massive amount of data, apparently as much as 8,000 terabytes, was then used to plan airstrikes and “to blackmail people, place them in detention, or even justify their killing after the fact.”

The Guardian’s report led to backlash at Microsoft, both from the company’s rank-and-file employees, like the worker-led group No Azure for Apartheid, and apparently even from executives. While Microsoft initially downplayed its relationship with the Israeli military, saying that it “found no evidence to date” that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had used Azure technology and its AI systems “to target or harm people,” they’ve reversed course after a review overseen by US law firm Covington & Burling.

In an internal email announcing that Microsoft was terminating its relationship with Unit 8200, the company’s vice-chair and president, Brad Smith, allegedly wrote, “We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians. We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades.”

Specifically, Microsoft notified Israeli officials that it would “disable” access to services that helped Unit 8200’s surveillance project and suspend its use of some AI products.

That said, it’s important to note that Microsoft hasn’t completely severed its long-running relationship with the Israeli military, and according to the Guardian, the IDF will retain access to “other services” outside of Azure and some of its AI tools.

Additionally, the Guardian also reported that Unit 8200 transferred much of its data elsewhere before Microsoft cut off access; the agency had previously been planning on moving this surveillance information to the Amazon Web Services cloud platform.

We’ve reached out to BDS for comment on the recent news and will provide an update once we’ve heard back.

 
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