Microsoft trims service to Israel over Gaza surveillance

San Francisco: Microsoft on Thursday said it cut an Israeli defense unit’s access to some cloud services being used as part of a mass surveillance operation in Gaza.

The move came after Microsoft spent more than two months investigating a report in The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Force was using cloud service Azure “for the storage of data files of phone calls obtained through broad or mass surveillance of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.”

“We have found evidence that supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a message to employees posted online.

“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians.”

Microsoft reviewed the decision with the Israel Ministry of Defense along with steps the tech firm is taking to ensure compliance, according to Smith.

“This does not impact the important work that Microsoft continues to do to protect the cybersecurity of Israel and other countries in the Middle East,” Smith said.

A joint investigation published in August by the Guardian and other media outlets found that an Israeli military agency was making use of Microsoft’s Azure software to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a tech industry worker-led campaign group named No Azure for Apartheid welcomed the decision.

“This is a welcome step and a point of vindication for those brave tech workers who stood up and protested,” Imraan Siddiqi, the executive director of CAIR’s Washington state chapter, said. The groups have demanded that Microsoft cut all ties with the Israeli government.

Microsoft has been among the most prominent of companies that have faced protests over ties to Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s military assault has mounted and images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage.

Some recent protests on company premises have led to firings of some employees who took part, including two who joined a sit-in at Smith’s office. Microsoft says the terminations followed breaches of company policies and the on-site demonstrations had created what it called significant safety concerns.

The Guardian’s investigation was conducted with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.

Israel’s two-year long assault on Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people and internally displaced Gaza’s entire population. Multiple rights experts, scholars and a U.N. inquiry say it amounts to genocide.