What is happening at Microsoft Israel? Shake-up deepens after review of Defense Ministry ties

[Eugene]

1. Head of Microsoft's Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military

Source: The Guardian

Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military

The inquiry came after the Guardian revealed Israel used company technology to support mass surveillance of Palestinian phone calls

Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham
Tue 12 May 2026 17.24 BST
Last modified on Tue 12 May 2026 18.37 BST

The head of Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military.

Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation revealing the military had used the company’s technology to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected Palestinian civilian phone calls on a mass scale.

The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found the military’s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.

The inquiry commissioned by Microsoft is understood to have recently concluded. Its findings are unclear; however, sources familiar with the situation said they prompted an announcement last week that Microsoft Israel’s general manager, Alon Haimovich, would leave the company.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/12/microsoft-head-israel-step-down