Microsoft has decided to revoke the Israeli army access to some of its cloud and artificial intelligence services, after discovering that they were used to archive mass interceptions on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza. This was communicated by the company to the Israeli defense ministry in a letter, viewed by Guardian. The move follows a joint investigation of +972 Magazine, Local Call And Guardianwhich had revealed that the 8200 unit-the elite of the Israeli cyber-war-kept millions of phone calls intercepted through the Microsoft Azure platform. According to the investigation, this information was used in the last two years to plan air raids in Gaza and for arrests in the West Bank.
The letter and the position of Microsoft
In the letter to the Ministry of Defense, Microsoft explained that he had started an “urgent” and independent investigation that confirmed the violation of the terms of service. “It is not in our business to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” wrote the company, announcing the suspension of the project. President Brad Smith also reiterated the line in an internal communication: “We have ceased and disable a set of services to a unit of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. We have applied this principle in each country for over two decades ».
International protests and pressures
The decision comes while protests grow against the tech giants accused of indirectly supporting the Israeli offensive on Gaza. In June, activists showed in the Netherlands in front of a Microsoft data center, after the revelation that housed over 11,500 Israeli military data terabytes. According to the Guardianthe 8200 unit would have already transferred the data elsewhere, focusing on the Amazon Web Services platform. Meanwhile, numerous other Israeli military projects involving Microsoft are not touched by the provision.
Controversial relationships
The link between Microsoft and the 8200 unit dates back to 2021, when the commander Yossi Sariel met the CEO Sattya Nadella in Seattle, proposing to archive up to 70% of the unit data – including highly classified material – on azure servers. An ambitious project, which according to Israeli sources aimed to keep “one million calls per hour”. Internal documents mentioned by Guardian They show that Microsoft considered this “critical” and “a powerful branding moment”. Today, however, in the face of the public discontent and the international accusations of Genocide in Gaza, the giant seems to have changed course.
