The general manager of Microsoft Israel was quietly removed from his role last week as part of an ongoing probe into how the company’s technology is potentially being used to spy on Palestinians. The tech giant was reportedly concerned that the work being done by its office in Israel was opening it up to legal liability in Europe.
Last September, The Guardian reported that Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology was being used to help the Israel Defense Forces spy on communications by Palestinians in Gaza, including private cell phone conversations. This data collection could allegedly have been used by the military to help it pick targets for its ongoing military operations. In response to the report, Microsoft announced that it was pausing its contracts with the IDF and would conduct a full investigation into the claims.
Now, according to Globes, Microsoft is cutting ties with employees from its regional office in Israel as a result of some of its findings. “Haimovich left his position after an investigation by Microsoft’s global management into Microsoft Israel’s work with the Ministry of Defense, amid concern that the company’s code of ethics had been violated,” Globes reported on May 11. “Several managers in Microsoft Israel’s governance department have also left their positions.”
Microsoft Israel now reports to Microsoft France as the company looks for its new leader. While Microsoft’s biggest cloud computing competitors, Google and Amazon, have contracts with the Israeli government to operate directly in the country and thus avoid international scrutiny, Microsoft’s services are routed through Europe, opening it up to legal liability from those countries.
Microsoft, and Xbox in particular, remains the target of an ongoing BDS Boycott over the material support it provides the Israeli government during its war on Gaza. A group of journalists, game developers, and others launched its own No Games For Genocide boycott last December, calling on the video game industry to stop engaging with Microsoft until it divests from Israel.
“Please do not purchase Luck Be a Landlord on Xbox,” game developer Dan DiIorio posted last year. “I will be making a $10,000 donation to The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund to (hopefully) help offset the revenue the game has generated for Microsoft.”
Amnesty International renewed calls for Israel to be investigated for war crimes today. “Israel’s unlawful and wanton destruction of civilian high-rise buildings continues to have devastating consequences for displaced Palestinian families in the occupied Gaza Strip, where reconstruction remains a distant dream amid ongoing genocide and air strikes despite the October 2025 so-called ceasefire,” it wrote in a new press release.