Newsletters
Employees and activists staged demonstrations at Microsoft's headquarters throughout the week, demanding the technology giant end its collaboration with the Israeli military amid ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The protest, organized by a group called "No Azure for Apartheid," drew current and former Microsoft employees alongside local activists who called for the company to cut ties with Israeli forces and provide reparations to Palestinians.
Police arrested seven demonstrators who occupied the office of Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith, including two current company employees. The action followed a larger protest outside the headquarters last week that resulted in 18 arrests.
The demonstrations center on revelations that Microsoft developed a specialized version of its Azure cloud platform to store millions of hours of Palestinian phone call recordings collected by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
An investigation by Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine, conducted with Local Call and The Guardian, revealed that Israeli military intelligence unit 8200 used phone conversation recordings stored on Microsoft's platform as intelligence for deadly air and ground strikes.
The leaked documents showed that Israeli military data was primarily stored on Microsoft servers in the Netherlands, with additional storage in Ireland and Israel. The 11,500 terabytes of data reportedly contained approximately 200 million hours of Palestinian voice recordings.
Microsoft has disputed claims that its technology was used to harm Palestinians in Gaza, with a company spokesperson stating they found "no evidence" their products were used for civilian surveillance.
However, an Associated Press investigation in early 2025 found that artificial intelligence models from Microsoft and OpenAI were used as part of Israeli military programs to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon.
1 min read
22 min read
