Microsoft employees protest company’s collaboration with israeli military

The protests were organized by the group No Azure for Apartheid and included current and former Microsoft staff, along with local activists. Demonstrators called on the tech giant to cut ties with Israeli forces and provide reparations to Palestinians.

Police arrested seven protesters who occupied the office of Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith, among them two current employees. The action followed a larger rally outside the company’s headquarters last week that led to 18 arrests.

According to TRT, the demonstrations were sparked by 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.

Investigation Reveals Intelligence Use of Microsoft Cloud

An investigation by +972 Magazine, in collaboration with Local Call and The Guardian, found that Israeli military intelligence unit 8200 used the recordings stored on Microsoft’s servers as intelligence for lethal air and ground strikes. Leaked documents showed that most of the data—some 11,500 terabytes containing around 200 million hours of conversations—was stored on Microsoft servers in the Netherlands, with additional storage in Ireland and Israel.

Microsoft has rejected claims that its technology was used for civilian surveillance. A spokesperson said the company found “no evidence” its products were used in that manner.

However, a separate Associated Press investigation in early 2025 revealed that artificial intelligence models developed by Microsoft and OpenAI were deployed in Israeli military programs to help select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon.