Microsoft sacks head of Israeli branch over Israeli army’s Azure use to store intel on Palestinians
A Microsoft logo is seen in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, in April 2026
The New Arab reports on 12 May 2026:
Microsoft has fired the head of its operations in Israel, Alon Haimovitch, and other senior figures, months after revelations about the Israeli subsidiary’s use of Microsoft Azure cloud services to spy on Palestinians, Israeli business news outlet Globes reported on Monday.
The move was announced by Microsoft Israel last week, following an investigation by Microsoft into breaches of the company’s code of conduct by the Israeli branch’s work with Israel’s Ministry of Defence.
Microsoft Israel has temporarily been placed under the management of Microsoft France.
Microsoft’s investigation team arrived in Israel several weeks ago, with a particular interest in the sales department’s dealings with the ministry, according to Globes.
The company was reportedly concerned that the contract was operating in a non-transparent way, which would bring it into regulatory issues in Europe, as part of the work with the ministry was performed by servers on the continent.
At the centre of the issue is Israeli intelligence units’ use of Azure to store surveillance data on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. This was revealed by a report by The Guardian and Israel’s +972 Magazine in 2025