Philadelphia, PA (September 26, 2025) – Amidst mounting pressure from human rights groups, its own employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders, Microsoft has blocked Israel’s largest military intelligence unit from using its Azure cloud platform and certain AI services. This decision was sparked by revelations by the Guardian, Local Call, and +972 Magazine, exposing that unit 8200, the Israeli military’s elite spy agency, has been using the limitless capacity of Microsoft Azure to store millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This technology over the last three years has allowed Israel to deepen its mass surveillance of the entire Palestinian population of the occupied Palestinian territory, in support of Israel’s illegal apartheid and genocide activities.
Microsoft’s vice-chair and president, Brad Smith, stated that the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense” because of the company’s policy not to “provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians.” This reverses Microsoft’s stance a few months ago, when it stated it had found “no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza.”
This is a major achievement for Microsoft employees, who have organized as No Azure for Apartheid and have repeatedly called on the company to cut its ties with the Israeli military. Instead of listening to the valid concerns of its own employees, Microsoft fired some of them, asked the FBI to surveil them, and retaliated against others in other ways. Microsoft should address the harm it caused these employees and treat them as the courageous whistleblowers that they are.
Last July, 60 Microsoft shareholders, collectively owning more than $80 million in MSFT shares, filed a shareholder proposal, calling on Microsoft to evaluate whether its AI and cloud technologies are being misused by customers, such as military entities, to commit human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law. The number of shareholders filing this resolution was unprecedented, reflecting the growing concerns by investors over the harm caused by dual use technologies in the Gaza genocide. Yesterday’s announcement by Microsoft serves as admission that its current human rights due diligence processes have failed in identifying violations of the company’s own terms of use by the Israeli government.
“Microsoft’s announcement is groundbreaking. It is the first known example of a technology company ending services to the Israeli military mid-contract because of human right concerns. While we welcome this decision, Microsoft continues to provide other services to the Israeli military and other Israeli government agencies that are enforcing an apartheid regime over Palestinians,” said Noam Perry, Strategic Research Coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee. “We call on Microsoft and all companies to abide by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. For Microsoft, this means further severing its ties to Israeli apartheid while redressing the harm it has caused to millions of Palestinians and to some of its own employees. Other companies with similar activities should follow suit.”
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The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.