Exclusive new details from The Guardian, +972, and Local Call reveal that Microsoft engineers built and maintained a custom Azure system for Israel’s Unit 8200 – feeding intelligence for airstrikes, blackmail, and extrajudicial killings – even as Muslim investors poured over $800M of ‘Shariah-compliant’ capital into the company…
In 2021, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met Israel’s Unit 8200 chief, Yossi Sariel, and greenlit a customised Azure cloud space that would soon hold one of the largest mass-surveillance archives in the world: millions of Palestinians’ phone calls from Gaza and the West Bank, hoarded for military use.
The findings were recently revealed by a joint investigation from The Guardian, +972a Magazine, and Local Call.
By 2022, this “million calls an hour” system built with Microsoft engineers’ help and stored in Dutch and Irish datacentres was feeding intelligence for airstrikes, blackmail, and extrajudicial killings. The system reportedly accumulated over 11,000 terabytes of data which is equivalent to 200 million hours of audio.
Hundreds of staff and leaked documents confirmed direct collaboration between Microsoft engineers and IDF Unit 8200 in securing these servers and establishing infrastructure tailored specifically to this data load.
Internal sources confirmed that the intercepted calls were used to shape military operations, including airstrikes and pinpointing targets by eavesdropping on conversations near suspected sites in densely populated areas. The intelligence extracted from this cloud database reportedly also supported target validation (after the fact justification of killings).
Sources confirm this huge database has been central to Israel’s genocide on Gaza, which has killed over 60,000 people, including 18,000 children, despite Microsoft’s public denials. For Unit 8200, the cloud provided “infinite storage” for tracking an entire population; for Microsoft, it was a “lucrative commercial opportunity” worth hundreds of millions.1
Internally, protests erupted. Employees launched the “No Azure for Apartheid” campaign2, with demonstrations interrupting CEO Nadella’s conference speech. Dozens were fired following protest actions, including three walkouts during company events in 2025.
Media investigations reveal that Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud are also used by the IDF’s Mamram unit, a central tech hub integrating AI and operational command systems for Gaza operations.3
Is this all still ‘Halal’ Dear Muslim Investors?
Nearly a billion dollars of supposedly Shariah-compliant investment sits in Microsoft stock which remains to be rubber-stamped by most ‘Shari’ah Compliant’ screens as ‘Halal’.
As of August 2025, the Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF (HLAL) holds $107.2M, SP Funds S&P 500 Shariah ETF (SPUS) $190M, HSBC Islamic Global Equity Index Fund at least $180M, and the Amana Growth Fund $328M. These investments have increased with the intensification of the genocide and starvation campaign on Gaza, and are even above levels reported in our first analysis in June of this year (2025).
To those who dismissed our previous exposé,4 scoffing that Microsoft’s complicity was just the IDF using its Office suite or buying Windows licenses, the Guardian’s investigation now makes your minimisation absurd.
It is confirmed that Microsoft is hosting a bespoke surveillance machine for an occupying army, feeding real-time intelligence into airstrikes on civilian neighbourhoods, and monetising the process as a lucrative commercial opportunity.
Thanks to huge investments in Microsoft, including significant sums from Muslim investors, Unit 8200 can replay Gaza’s phone calls at will, sift through text messages with AI ‘risk ratings,’ and store 11,500 terabytes of their private communications in overseas data centres. The servers, software, and security are courtesy of a corporation Muslims still own nearly a billion dollars of shares in. The time for action is now.
References:
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-israeli-military-palestinian-phone-calls-cloud ↩︎
- https://noazureforapartheid.com/ ↩︎
- https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/amazon-google-microsoft-fuel-israeli-military-aggression-in-israels-war-on-gaza-investigation-reveals ↩︎
- ‘Halal’ Genocide? The $2B+ Islamic Investment Scandal No One Wants to Face – SarimBlog ↩︎
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