{"id":438236,"date":"2026-05-12T17:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/438236\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:30:08","slug":"head-of-microsofts-israel-branch-to-step-down-after-inquiry-into-dealings-with-israeli-military-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/438236\/","title":{"rendered":"Head of Microsoft\u2019s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military | Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Microsoft<\/a>\u2019s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation<\/a> revealing the military had used the company\u2019s technology to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected Palestinian civilian phone calls on a mass scale.<\/p>\n

The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication, +972 Magazine<\/a>, and the Hebrew-language outlet, Local Call<\/a>, found the military\u2019s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft\u2019s Azure cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The inquiry commissioned by Microsoft<\/a> 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\u2019s general manager, Alon Haimovich, would leave the company.<\/p>\n

The Israeli business newspaper, Globes<\/a>, reported on Monday that Haimovich\u2019s departure followed a major controversy at the subsidiary relating to violations of Microsoft\u2019s code of ethics. It reported that several other managers had also left their positions.<\/p>\n

Within weeks of launching the inquiry, Microsoft concluded that its initial findings showed Unit 8200 had violated its terms of service, which prohibit the use of its technology to facilitate mass surveillance. As a result, the company terminated the unit\u2019s access<\/a> to cloud services and AI<\/a> products used to support the surveillance project.<\/p>\n

Equipped with Azure\u2019s near-limitless storage capacity and computing power, Unit 8200 built an indiscriminate system allowing its intelligence officers to collect, play back and analyse the content of millions of Palestinian cellular phone calls every day.<\/p>\n

Details of the surveillance programme\u2019s reliance on Azure sparked concerns among senior executives at Microsoft that some of its Israel-based employees may not have been fully transparent with headquarters about how Unit 8200 used the company\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with the inquiry, which involved lawyers at Covington & Burling, a US firm, said this had been one area of focus. According to Globes, Haimovich was summoned by the inquiry team after they visited Microsoft Israel\u2019s offices near Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

Documents seen by the Guardian suggest Haimovich played a role in developing the relationship between Microsoft Israel and Unit 8200 following a 2021 meeting between Microsoft\u2019s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and the unit\u2019s then commander.<\/p>\n

This included overseeing a partnership with the spy agency to build a segregated area within Azure to store sensitive intelligence material. Once complete, Unit 8200 began to move the expansive archive of everyday Palestinian communications into Microsoft\u2019s cloud infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Haimovich did not respond to a request for comment. In an email to staff announcing his departure last week, he said he had positioned Israel as \u201cone of Microsoft\u2019s fastest-growing markets worldwide\u201d.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has previously said its senior executives such as Nadella were unaware Unit 8200 was using Azure to store intercepted Palestinian communications. The company\u2019s vice chair and president, Brad Smith, said last year: \u201cWe do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get in touch<\/p>\n

Contact Harry Davies about this story<\/p>\n

If you have something to share about this story, you can contact Harry using one of the following methods:<\/p>\n

Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/p>\n

The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019.<\/p>\n

To send a message to Harry Davies please choose the \u2018UK Investigations\u2019 team.<\/p>\n

Messaging apps<\/p>\n

You can message Harry using the Signal Messenger app. Use the \u2018find by username\u2019 option and type \u2018hfd.90\u2019.<\/p>\n

SecureDropIf you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips<\/a>\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.<\/p>\n

Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Microsoft\u2019s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-438236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}