A coalition of international legal and advocacy groups has warned Microsoft and its top executives that the company could face legal liability for allegedly aiding and abetting atrocity crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
In a letter sent days before Microsoft’s annual general meeting on December 5, the Abolitionist Law Center, Avaaz Foundation, European Legal Support Center, SOMO, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ekō, and the Global Legal Action Network said Microsoft’s long-standing relationship with the Israeli military has enabled the rapid expansion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The groups say Microsoft’s cloud services and artificial intelligence tools have supported Israeli surveillance of Palestinians and assisted in the development of “kill targets,” contributing to the speed and scale of Israel’s military operations. They argue that the company, its executives and individual officers could face criminal and civil exposure under international and U.S. law.
Eric Sype, U.S. national organiser at 7amleh – The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, said shareholders should be aware of the risks associated with the company’s work with Israel. “Ahead of the Annual General Meeting on December 5, shareholders have the opportunity to push for accountability to ensure Microsoft ends its complicity in occupation, apartheid, and genocide,” Sype said in the statement.
The groups allege that Microsoft expanded its services to the Israeli military in the weeks after Israel’s assault on Gaza, providing tens of millions of dollars’ worth of additional support. They say Israeli military use of Microsoft technology “skyrocketed” as the conflict escalated.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza over the past two years has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians and injured over 170,000 others, according to figures cited by the organisations. They say journalists, medical workers and humanitarian staff have been targeted, and that widespread destruction has left civilians without essential services. A cease-fire announced in October 2025 has done little to halt the violence, they say, with hundreds more Palestinians killed and thousands of buildings destroyed since then.
“Israel’s genocide would be impossible without private Big Tech firms equipping the Israeli military with everything from cloud storage to surveillance technology,” said Bassel El-Rewini, a human rights fellow at the Abolitionist Law Center.
The groups also say Microsoft continues to provide major services to dozens of Israeli military units despite international concern, and that internal employee efforts to end the company’s military contracts—such as the No Azure for Apartheid campaign—have been suppressed.
Microsoft fired dissenting employees as recently as August 2025, according to the letter.
Gearóid Ó Cuinn, director of the Global Legal Action Network, said the technology infrastructure supporting Israel’s targeting operations includes systems hosted in Europe. “European law is explicit: if your systems materially enable atrocity crimes or unlawful population-level surveillance, you inherit serious legal exposure,” he said.
The coalition is urging Microsoft to immediately end services “illegally deployed by Israel,” review its role in potential human rights violations and offer restitution to affected communities. The letter argues that Microsoft, with a market capitalisation near $3.8 trillion, has prioritised profit over its responsibility to uphold human rights and is now formally on notice of the potential legal consequences.
