Israeli Military's Utilization of Microsoft Services Sparks Employee Disapproval, Leading to Xbox and Game Pass Boycott
Microsoft's Role in Israel's Surveillance of Palestinians Revealed
In an exposé by The Guardian, 972 Magazine, and Local Call, it has been revealed that Microsoft provides the cloud infrastructure that stores and processes intercepted Palestinian communications for Israel’s Unit 8200, facilitating extensive Israeli surveillance and military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
The relationship between tech giant Microsoft and the Israeli military has been under scrutiny since April and May, when Microsoft employees staged public protests over the company’s supply of Azure Cloud services to the Israeli military. The controversy escalated in July, when a group of 60 shareholders called on the company to explain itself regarding its relationship with the Israeli military.
The investigation has sought to lay out the specific relationship between Microsoft and Unit 8200. According to leaked documents and multiple sources, the partnership began after a 2021 meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Unit 8200’s commander. The system enables Unit 8200 to monitor everyday Palestinian communications extensively, including calls from Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The highly customized Azure system has been operational since 2022, holding around 11,500 terabytes of intercepted communications—equivalent to roughly 200 million hours of calls—and processing up to a million calls per hour to support Israeli military operations in these territories. Intelligence from these Azure archives has been used in the selection of bombing targets in Gaza, according to the report.
The platform facilitates detailed surveillance that Israeli authorities use not only for intelligence gathering but also to justify arrests, detention, and even lethal operations, such as airstrikes, based on the intercepted conversations. Microsoft states it conducted an external review after initial revelations and found no evidence that Azure or its AI tools have been directly used to target or harm individuals.
However, the leaked documents and insider accounts suggest the platform has become central to Israel’s military and surveillance strategy in the region. Microsoft has held discussions with Israeli defense officials to set boundaries on how its technology should be utilized, emphasizing that its systems must not be used to identify targets for lethal strikes. Nonetheless, the report alleges that Microsoft provides a customized, specialized subset of Azure to store data from a dragnet of intercepted telecommunications in Gaza and The West Bank, amounting to millions of text messages and full phone conversations.
In response to these reports, Microsoft launched an investigation into how Unit 8200 is using its cloud platform. The data stored on Azure is kept mainly in Microsoft data centers located in the Netherlands and Ireland. The BDS movement has called for a boycott of Xbox, Game Pass, and Microsoft-published games to pressure the company to end its relationship with the Israeli military.
Despite multiple waves of studio closures and layoffs, Microsoft still owns a huge swathe of the games industry, including Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, Arkane Lyon, inXile, Obsidian, Double Fine, and Mojang. This year's upcoming releases, best PC games, all-time favorites, free PC games, best FPS games, best RPGs, best co-op games are not relevant to the article’s content and therefore not extractable.
References: [1] The Guardian: Microsoft's Azure cloud powers Israeli military's surveillance of Palestinians, leaked documents show [2] The Verge: Microsoft is under investigation for supplying cloud services to the Israeli military [3] 972 Magazine: Microsoft's Azure cloud powers Israeli military's surveillance of Palestinians, leaked documents show [4] Local Call: Microsoft's Azure cloud powers Israeli military's surveillance of Palestinians, leaked documents show
- The Guardian, 972 Magazine, and Local Call have revealed that Microsoft provides the cloud infrastructure for Israel’s Unit 8200, enabling extensive Israeli surveillance and military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
- The partnership between Microsoft and Israel’s Unit 8200 began after a 2021 meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the commander of Unit 8200.
- The customized Azure system has been operational since 2022, storing around 11,500 terabytes of intercepted communications and processing up to a million calls per hour.
- Intel from these Azure archives has been used in the selection of bombing targets in Gaza, according to the report.
- Microsoft states it conducted an external review and found no evidence that Azure or its AI tools have been directly used to target or harm individuals.
- However, the leaked documents and insider accounts suggest the platform has become central to Israel’s military and surveillance strategy in the region.
- The BDS movement has called for a boycott of Microsoft products, including Xbox, Game Pass, and Microsoft-published games, to pressure the company to end its relationship with the Israeli military.
