Microsoft has recently announced a record-setting £22bn investment in the UK, aimed at developing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructures and expanding cloud computing capabilities. Central to their plan is constructing the UK’s largest AI supercomputer facility in Essex. There are currently around 6000 employees of Microsoft in the UK, across AI research labs, technical operations, and software development teams, and this funding is expected to create thousands of highly skilled new jobs. Clients of Microsoft’s UK services include Barclays, NHS, Vodafone, the London Stock Exchange, and the UK Met Office, all integrating AI to transform their operational effectiveness.
But beneath this technological ambition lies a far darker story – Microsoft’s deep and ongoing collaboration with the Israeli military, implicating it in grave human rights abuses, including war crimes and acts of genocide inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Microsoft complicit in occupation and genocide
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, released a landmark report earlier this year, titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide. The document uncovers the troubling reality that multinational corporations, including Microsoft, materially contribute to sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime, and defines an “economy of genocide”, underlining how certain companies provide the necessary technological infrastructure, AI capabilities, and other services that enable Israel to conduct forced evictions, mass killings, and precise surveillance on Palestinian civilians.
Albanese’s findings explicitly named Microsoft as a major enabler, and claimed that its technologies are integral to the continuation of crimes that violate international law – including unlawful settlements, military operations causing immense civilian suffering, and systemic repression.
Israel using Microsoft mass surveillance and automated targeting algorithms against Palestinians
Microsoft’s relationship with Israel has long roots, but its involvement with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) deepened significantly after a 2021 meeting between CEO Satya Nadella and the commander of Israel’s elite Unit 8200 which conducts wide-scale signals intelligence and cyber warfare. After this meeting, Microsoft created a dedicated, segregated area within its Azure cloud platform for exclusive use by Israeli military intelligence.
According to leaked internal documents and multiple insider sources, this cloud environment was designed to handle unprecedented volumes of intercepted Palestinian data. It provides near-limitless storage, enhanced security protocols, and advanced AI tools to mine and process intelligence for military operations. Since early 2022, the Israeli military intelligence has stored millions of Palestinian phone calls on Microsoft’s Azure servers daily. These intercepted conversations, from Gaza and the West Bank, amount to over 200 million recorded hours, as of August 2025.
Directly informing lethal military decisions
Microsoft’s engineers have collaborated closely with Israeli military units, developing encryption and cybersecurity mechanisms to secure this surveillance infrastructure. The intelligence gained is not just collected for data analysis, but directly informs lethal military decisions. The IDF uses this data to plan targeted airstrikes, raids, and detentions, leading to massive civilian casualties. Many of the neighbourhoods under attack have been densely populated with residential buildings, schools, and hospitals, drawing accusations of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.
Microsoft provides artificial intelligence algorithms, including access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 via Azure, rapidly sifting through and interpreting data for what Israeli intelligence calls ‘target banks’ – databases of individuals or locations tagged for potential military action. The use of AI-driven tools transforms the time-intensive intelligence gathering process into near-real-time analysis, allowing fast and often indiscriminate targeting.
This AI-assisted warfare raises unprecedented ethical concerns about algorithmic decision-making in life-and-death situations and has been linked to operations that have decimated large swathes of civilian infrastructure and led to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Integration in repression and prison systems
Beyond military applications, Microsoft technology is embedded in Israeli systems which enforce apartheid policies, including biometric controls, checkpoint monitoring, and surveillance infrastructure limiting Palestinians’ freedom of movement and expression.
Microsoft also supports surveillance and control technologies tied to Israeli prisons known for routinely engaging in torture and other inhumane treatments of Palestinian detainees.
Microsoft says no evidence has emerged of deliberate misuse of its technology to target or harm individuals, and publicly distances itself from allegations of wrongdoing, claiming internal audits have shown compliance with its policies and international human rights standards. But insider leaks reveal an awareness across the company regarding the military implications of their work. Internal emails describe the partnership with Israeli military intelligence as ‘critical’ to Microsoft’s growth plans.
The UK’s complicity and legal obligations
Starmer officially welcomed Microsoft’s £22bn investment as a technological ‘game-changer’, stressing the job creation aspect and AI leadership in the UK economy, but has failed to address Microsoft’s active role in the occupation. This raises serious legal and moral issues because, according to international legal frameworks including the 1948 Genocide Convention and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), states have a duty to stop genocide and must do everything they can to prevent genocide.
The ICJ, in 2024, concluded that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and its security policies, are unlawful, and ordered all states, including the UK, to refrain from facilitating these actions, including via corporate partnerships. The UK’s encouragement of Microsoft’s expansion, while neglecting these responsibilities, makes it complicit, yet again, in continued atrocities in the West Bank, and genocide in Gaza.
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement says “Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza” and has stepped up its efforts against the corporation, highlighting its role in enabling the Israeli military’s surveillance and lethal operations through Azure and AI technologies. BDS has called for a global boycott of Microsoft’s gaming division, and for customers to cancel subscriptions, avoid purchasing any Microsoft gaming products, and pressure institutional divestments from the tech giant.
Holding Microsoft to account
Microsoft is facing growing global scrutiny for its involvement in Israeli crimes against Palestinians, and protests have escalated, drawing attention and helping to raise awareness about the company’s complicity. Activists are demanding Microsoft cut all ties with the Israeli military, halt sales of AI-enabled surveillance technologies used in the occupation, and pay reparations to affected Palestinian communities.
Microsoft’s use of its technologies in facilitating the Israeli occupation and its genocide in Gaza, exposes a growing ethical dilemma – one where innovation and oppression coexist, and internationally recognised rights are trampled on under the guise of technological progress.
Profits must never come at the expense of human rights. Technology should uplift and protect lives – not be used to surveil, oppress, or kill. Until Microsoft is held accountable for how its tools enable harm against Palestinians, the UK should not strike any trade deals or investments that effectively give a green light to this complicity.
This is not just about business or jobs, but about the values we decide to uphold. The UK must demand transparency, responsibility, and respect for human dignity from powerful tech firms like Microsoft. Anything less, and our government risks becoming even more complicit in injustice than it already is.
Feature image via Youtube/Democracy Now!
By Charlie Jaay
This post was originally published on Canary.