Microsoft Israel head fired following investigation of Palestine surveillance

According to a new report, Microsoft fired the head of its Israeli subsidiary after an internal review over the misuse of its Azure infrastructure in the Israel-Palestine war. Alon Haimovich left the company, and the Microsoft Israel division is now more closely overseen by Microsoft France.

Microsoft reportedly launched an investigation into government-linked projects that may have violated internal ethical guidelines. While Microsoft is not revealing any details about the matter, sources suggest that the company was concerned about the use of its systems and data handling.

Part of the controversy appears linked to earlier accusations involving Israel’s Unit 8200, the military intelligence division often associated with cyber and surveillance operations. Previous reports alleged that cloud services hosted through Microsoft infrastructure were used to process large amounts of intercepted communications data from Gaza. Microsoft later restricted some related services after conducting its own internal assessment.

As a result, Microsoft France took a more active role in supervising Microsoft Israel and its operations. The report suggests that, in addition to Alon Haimovich, a few other managers stepped down.

Microsoft is facing continuous criticism over the use of its tech in government and military AI contracts. Employee protests became more common, with some crashing Microsoft's keynote at its 50th anniversary celebration, and others later taking over the Microsoft President's office in a protest against supplying AI tech to Israeli forces. As a result, Microsoft launched an investigation into how Israel uses Microsoft tech.

Microsoft is trying to respond to the accusations, but it is highly unlikely that things will get easier for the company in the near future, especially with the Israeli Ministry of Defense renewing contracts with Microsoft later this year, albeit on a smaller scale.

Source: Globes