Netanyahu calls Britain pro- H

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Netanyahu calls Britain pro- Hamas: Microsoft withdrawn hands from Tel-Aviv

After the US tech giant Microsoft, in an unexpected development, has cut Israel military’s absolute access to some cloud computing, AI three days ago, the Israel government has rubbished the British government alleging that Britain was supporting Hamas militia.

The multinational tech company has agreed and concluded that the IDF (Israeli Defence System) had consistently and 'deliberately' exploited it's platform to unleash heinous consecutive bids to kill 'innocent' Palestinians over the past two years.

Israel, as estimated by the United Nations, has killed as many as 65,000 Palestinians over the period that has shook the civilised world.

Microsoft said the Israeli military’s use of Azure to store data obtained through mass surveillance of Palestinians violated its business terms of service.

Microsoft has terminated the Israeli military over concerns that its desperately violating the terms of service by using the firm’s cloud computing software to spy on millions of Palestinians, the company’s vice chairperson and president Brad Smith confirmed on last Sunday.

Smith wrote in a blog post that the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services” to a unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defence in response to an August 6 joint investigation.

It's alleged that the Israeli military’s Unit 8200 used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through mass surveillance in war-torn Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The Unit 8200 is the Israeli military’s elite cyber warfare unit responsible for clandestine operations, including collecting signal intelligence and surveillance.

The investigation further revealed that following a 2021 meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Unit 8200’s leader Yossi Sariel, an agreement was reached to collaborate on moving large volumes of sensitive intelligence material into the company’s Azure platform.

The process, which has been operational since 2022, allowed Unit 8200 to utilise Azure’s near-limitless storage capacity and computing power to collect, play back and analyse the phone calls of millions of Palestinians.

The cloud-based system also helped Israel to guide deadly air strikes and shaped operations across the occupied Palestinian territory. It's also identified that a large amount of the data on Palestinians appeared to be stored on Microsoft’s Azure servers located in the Netherlands and Ireland.

Demonstrators, meanwhile, kept marching in support of Palestinians in Gaza near the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle, Washington, US since May 2024 demanding the tech giant must fire IDF on genocide issue.

Microsoft’s Smith said the firm had reviewed the allegations 'based on two principles' and concluded that the Israeli military data storage violated the company’s terms of service

“First, we do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians. We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades,” he said.

“Second, we respect and protect the privacy rights of our customers,” Smith added.

Smith did not name the specific Israeli unit losing access to Microsoft services but confirmed that some Israeli Defence Ministry subscriptions, including “specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies”, had been cancelled.

In the backdrop that Microsoft has 'punished' Israel on gross misuse of the service terms, the British government has shown the courage to declare Palestine as an independent nation that was followed by Australia. This definitely has put Israel in a bad patch, which the already troubled Benjamin Netanyahu government is struggling hard to overcome.

Israel, giving a sharp reaction to Britain's move has said today that it was an utter 'disgrace' that the Labour Party runs Britain after party members voted to accuse Israel of mass genocide in Gaza.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government claimed that Labour “stands with Hamas” following a ballot of the ruling party’s activists at its annual conference in Liverpool yesterday.

Labour members defied Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer by voting in favour of a motion calling on the PM to accept the findings of a recent UN report which said Israel was committing genocide, as well as urging him to back a full arms embargo.