A new legal and shareholder campaign warns that Microsoft’s military contracts expose the company and its executives to international and domestic liability
Microsoft is under mounting scrutiny for its role in providing technology and cloud services to the Israeli military as the assault on Gaza continues to devastate Palestinian civilians and infrastructure. Days before Microsoft’s annual shareholders meeting on December 5, an international coalition of legal and human rights organizations warned that the company and its leadership may face legal liability for “aiding and abetting … atrocity crimes” committed by Israeli forces. The warning comes as activists, employees, investors, and international courts intensify pressure on corporations supplying the technology infrastructure that has enabled what experts have described as the “first AI-powered genocide.”
The coalition’s open letter, released on December 2, states that “over the last few months, it has become exceedingly clear that Microsoft’s services and technologies have been used to violate Palestinian human rights,” a fact that legal advocates say should concern shareholders preparing to vote at the upcoming meeting. Eric Sype of 7amleh–The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement said that investors “should be aware of just how much this opens up the company to legal liability.” The letter was signed by groups including the Abolitionist Law Center, Avaaz Foundation, European Legal Support Center, SOMO, Center for Constitutional Rights, Ekō, and GLAN.
These groups argue that Microsoft provides “major services” to Israeli ground, air, and naval forces at a time when “widespread agreement among experts” holds that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. One example highlighted is Mamram, the Israeli military’s central computing system and “weapons platform,” which has relied on Microsoft’s AI support and cloud services during operations in Gaza. According to the letter, Microsoft provided “rapid support” to Mamram in the early months of the assault to prevent systems from failing under the weight of military demands.
The role of Big Tech in the assault on Gaza has become increasingly visible as journalists and investigators document how data processing, AI tools, and cloud infrastructure have enabled large scale surveillance, target identification, and lethal operations. Truthout has reported that these technologies are so deeply embedded in Israel’s military campaign that observers frequently describe the mass killing and destruction in Gaza as “the first AI-powered genocide.” The legal coalition asserts that by supplying technology services used in these operations, Microsoft has exposed itself to “wide-ranging criminal and civil legal liability” under international law and within courts in the United States and the European Union.
The EU’s role is especially significant. Gearóid Ó Cuinn, founding director of the Global Legal Action Network, said that “the EU dimension is devastatingly critical here — significant infrastructure powering Israel’s military targeting is hosted and processed in Europe, including by Microsoft.” He emphasized that “European law is explicit: if your systems materially enable atrocity crimes or unlawful population-level surveillance, you inherit serious legal exposure.” That legal exposure extends not only to the corporation but also to its executives and individual officers.
Investor pressure is also growing. Norway’s $2.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world and a major shareholder in Microsoft, announced that the upcoming annual meeting will include a vote on a proposal requiring the company to report on the risks of operating in countries with severe human rights concerns. While the proposal does not explicitly reference Israel, it calls for transparency on whether Microsoft adequately identifies and manages human rights risks associated with its products and contracts.
The push for accountability follows earlier statements from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations. On October 10, these groups jointly urged Microsoft to “suspend business activities” that contribute to “grave human rights abuses and international crimes by the Israeli military and other Israeli government bodies.” Their warnings came as the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior leaders for war crimes, and as Israel faced formal genocide charges before the UN International Court of Justice.
Meanwhile, internal documents and media investigations have shed more light on how Microsoft products have been used in surveillance and targeting. An investigation published in August by The Guardian, Local Call, and +972 Magazine found that an Israeli cyberwarfare unit used Microsoft Azure to intercept and store audio from millions of Palestinian phone calls. The report concluded that the operation was likely “one of the world’s largest and most intrusive collections of surveillance data over a single population group.” After protests by employees and widespread media coverage, Microsoft initiated an internal review and blocked the cyberwarfare unit from using Azure. In a memo publicly released on September 25, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith wrote that the mass surveillance of civilians violates company terms of service, and that Microsoft must also protect user privacy.
However, the company’s actions were limited. Smith wrote that the decision “does not impact the important work that Microsoft continues to do to protect the cybersecurity of Israel and other countries in the Middle East.” The company told Truthout that it continues to investigate allegations of misuse of its technologies and has created a reporting platform for employees to flag potential violations of company policies.
Employee activism is increasingly visible. No Azure for Apartheid, a collective of Microsoft workers and allies, has circulated a petition demanding that the company end its sale of AI and cloud services to the Israeli government. The group also seeks protections for pro-Palestine speech and for Arab and Muslim employees who have faced retaliation. A video posted by the organization appears to show police breaking up a peaceful pro-Palestine protest held by employees outside a Microsoft conference on November 23. According to the legal coalition’s letter, Microsoft has suppressed internal advocacy and has fired dissenting workers as recently as August 2025.
These disputes unfold against the backdrop of catastrophic violence in Gaza. Legal advocates note that for more than two years, Israel has “unrelentingly bombed, invaded, and besieged Gaza,” killing over 68,000 Palestinians “at least 20,000 of whom are children,” and injuring more than 170,000 others. Israeli forces have destroyed nearly all essential infrastructure, leaving the population without healthcare, electricity, or food as disease and starvation spread. Even after a nominal ceasefire was declared in October 2025, Israel “continued to kill hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, destroy thousands of buildings, and hinder the entry of life-saving aid.”
Advocates stress that without corporate support, such large scale atrocities would not be technologically possible. Bassel El-Rewini, human rights fellow at the Abolitionist Law Center, said, “As revealed by employee activists, journalists, and others, Israel’s genocide would be impossible without private Big Tech firms equipping the Israeli military with everything from cloud storage to surveillance technology.” He added that companies such as Microsoft “have no excuse for continuing their support to Israel and must be held accountable.”
The coalition argues that Microsoft has not only supported the infrastructure of occupation and attack but has actively expanded its offerings as violence increased. The letter states that Microsoft “raced to provide tens of millions of dollars’ worth in increased services to the Israeli military in the weeks following Israel’s assault on Gaza,” and that military usage of the company’s tools “skyrocketed as the genocide progressed.”
European regulators, human rights bodies, and global courts are expected to examine these claims closely in the coming year. The letter sent to Microsoft states that the company’s “knowing provision” of services tied to atrocities opens it to liability across multiple legal systems. It urges Microsoft to terminate all services “illegally deployed by Israel,” identify additional contributions to human rights violations, and take steps to provide restitution to harmed communities.
As shareholders prepare to convene, Microsoft’s corporate leadership faces a deepening question about its responsibilities. With a market capitalization of nearly $3.8 trillion, the company has long been one of the most powerful technology providers in the world. Critics now argue that it has “continually prioritized profits above its responsibility to respect human rights law.” Whether internal and external pressure will force meaningful change remains uncertain, but the company’s role in supporting Israeli military operations has opened a new front in the global movement challenging corporate complicity in genocide.
COMMENTS