‘Microsoft powered genocide for 994 days’: Employee quits in dramatic resignation email, sends 'unhappy email' to thousands of company's employees. Here's what he wrote

A Microsoft employee in Italy has drawn global attention after resigning with a strongly worded email accusing the tech giant of helping power Israel's military operations in Gaza. In his farewell message sent to thousands of colleagues across Europe, the worker claimed that Microsoft had "powered the genocide of our people in Palestine" for the past 994 days and said he could no longer remain with the company.

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The employee, identified only as "Nour," worked as a Critical Environment Technician at a Microsoft data center in Italy. His resignation letter was later published by the activist group No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA), which has been campaigning against Microsoft's contracts and technology services linked to Israel.

Microsoft employee quits, makes serious allegations

In the email dated June 26, Nour announced that he was leaving Microsoft after nearly two years with the company.

He alleged that Microsoft's data centers and cloud infrastructure were playing a role in Israel's military activities in Gaza, reports the Times of India. According to the letter, he viewed the company's expanding data center network as part of a broader system supporting surveillance and warfare technologies.

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"For the past 994 days, Microsoft has powered the genocide of our people in Palestine," Nour wrote, adding that he no longer wanted to contribute his labour to the company.

The claims reflect his personal views and allegations, which have become part of a wider campaign led by employee activists.

Microsoft's Azure platform linked to Israeli Intelligence Ops?

Several of Nour's accusations reference reporting were published in August 2025 by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call.

The investigation reported that Israel's intelligence unit, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to store a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian phone calls. According to the report, the data amounted to around 11,500 terabytes and was primarily stored in Microsoft-operated facilities in the Netherlands, with additional storage in Ireland.

Sources quoted in the investigation said the information was used to support intelligence analysis and military operations. Nour cited these findings in his email and argued that such systems contributed to military targeting efforts.

Microsoft says it does not support civilian surveillance

Microsoft has repeatedly denied that its technology is used to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians. Following the publication of the 2025 investigation, the company conducted an internal review and later commissioned an external legal assessment.

Microsoft President Brad Smith stated that the company found no evidence that its Azure services were being used to harm civilians. He also confirmed that Microsoft had disabled certain services provided to a unit within Israel's Defense Ministry.

The company has maintained that it does not knowingly provide technology for civilian surveillance and that any actions taken were in line with its policies and terms of service.

Nour claims data was relocated after media investigation

One of the most controversial allegations in Nour's resignation letter involves the movement of data after the 2025 media investigation became public.

He claimed Microsoft worked with Israeli authorities to transfer intercepted data from European servers to an Israeli data center shortly after the report was published. While reporting indicated that some data appeared to have been moved during that period, Microsoft has described its actions differently, saying it was enforcing internal compliance and service policies.

No public evidence has emerged confirming Nour's allegation that the transfer was intended to conceal information from European regulators.

The Growing 'No Azure for Apartheid' Movement

Nour's resignation is part of a broader employee-led campaign known as No Azure for Apartheid.

The group has organized protests, workplace actions and public demonstrations calling on Microsoft to end contracts they believe support Israeli military operations. Activists have staged demonstrations at Microsoft offices and encouraged employees to speak out against the company's involvement in the region.

The movement argues that technology workers should have greater control over how the products they build are used.

Nour ended his email with a call for colleagues to join what he described as a "Worker Intifada" and support efforts to divest labor from projects linked to military operations.

He argued that employees have both the influence and responsibility to challenge how technology is deployed.

The resignation has become one of the most high-profile examples of employee activism inside a major technology company, highlighting the growing debate over the role of cloud computing, artificial intelligence and surveillance technologies in modern conflicts.

Full text of Nour's email, as published by No Azure for Apartheid:

After nearly two years as a Critical Environment Technician at a Microsoft Italy data center, I choose to resign. This is because, right now, Microsoft is massively expanding its European data centers (aka mass surveillance centers) to use Palestine as a laboratory for its experimental digital weaponry. For the past 994 days, Microsoft has powered the genocide of our people in Palestine, and the company's European data centers are fundamental to how Microsoft abets crimes against humanity.

Microsoft has tried and failed to techwash the expansion of mass surveillance centers by pretending it is some worthwhile technological innovation. Meanwhile, the ones reaping the rewards are war criminals and tyrants. Palestinians continue to be murdered, tortured, and starved under the guise of a fake "ceasefire." In our own backyards, data centers consume our water, land, and energy. As Microsoft capitalizes on our planet's limited resources to power "hundreds of thousands" of GPUs per data center, the Israeli military uses Microsoft's AI to spy on Palestinians and to translate, transcribe and search through surveillance data.

During Israel's first 6 months of genocide, the Israeli military's usage of Microsoft's AI increased by a factor of 64. On August 6, 2025, reports exposed how Microsoft hosted 11,500 terabytes of intercepted Palestinian phone call data in the Microsoft Netherlands data center, with additional data stored in the Irish data center, amounting to 200 million hours of audio. This trove of mass surveillance data has been described as "one of the world's largest and most intrusive collections of surveillance data over a single population group."

This data is used by the Israeli military to identify targets for airstrikes, arrests, and blackmail from the entire Palestinian population. It is also used as training data to build AI-targeting programs. These programs invent arbitrary justifications to murder non-combatants, intentionally adding civilian workers to the Israeli military's generated "target bank"; the programs also facilitate massacres of entire families at once. While Microsoft claims to have launched (and concluded) an "investigation" into this mass surveillance in the Netherlands, we workers can see through their gaslighting and lies.

Between August 6th, when exposed, and August 15th, when Microsoft announced its investigation launch, Microsoft colluded with the Israeli military to quickly transfer the intercepted Palestinian phone call data out of the Netherlands to the Microsoft Israel data center. In doing so, Microsoft expedited the concealment of crimes against humanity from any European regulator or international investigation. The Israeli military also uses the Irish data center to host the Al-Munasseq (or 'The Coordinator') application.

Palestinians are forced to download the application to navigate Israel's apartheid permit system, used to illegally and inhumanely restrict Palestinian movement. This application requires an obscenely unnecessary amount of personal information and control over the phone to function. This includes whether the phone can turn on or off, the ability to read personal files and messages, and much more to be used for "any purpose."

Hosting this application on Irish soil, when Palestine and Ireland have a shared history of occupation and forced starvation, is especially outrageous. While Microsoft touts the importance of empowerment, helping people achieve more, and "growth mindset," they make us non-consenting accessories to their complicity in genocide. To my fellow colleagues, we are the ones building Microsoft's technology; we are the ones keeping this company running.

We have both the power and the responsibility to reclaim our labor. Our worker and local community's resistance has proven to be successful. Microsoft workers and community protested at Microsoft headquarters last August, establishing a Liberated Zone on the Martyred Palestinian Children's Plaza and the Mai Ubeid Building. As a result, Microsoft ended a major contract with the Israeli military spy agency, Unit 8200.

And while this is a major win for workers and community, there is still so much work to do. We can, and must, choose to resist the exploitation of our labor and our finite resources for genocide. Today, I am making the choice to reclaim my labor from Microsoft's genocide-profiteering claws by leaving. I understand this is not an option for so many people, and for this reason, I am calling on you to meet the urgency of this moment by joining the Worker Intifada however you can.

Learn how Microsoft powers genocide in Palestine

Take the pledge to divest your labor from Israel

Sign No Azure for Apartheid's petition to demand that Microsoft cut ties with the Israeli government and military

Join No Azure for Apartheid

Free Palestine, Nour