The leader of Microsoft's Israel subsidiary is stepping down at the end of May amid a probe into the company's relationship with the Israeli government.

Alon Haimovich, general manager of Microsoft Israel, will leave the company after four years in the role and seven years at Microsoft, the company said in a news release earlier this month.

His departure comes after more than a year of intense scrutiny over Microsoft's artificial intelligence and cloud contracts with the Israeli government, specifically those with the country's military. The company has faced public protests from activists and former employees who have disrupted conferences and events at Microsoft's Redmond campus.

A report from The Guardian and two regional publications — +972 Magazine, an Israeli-Palestinian outlet, and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call — last year said an intelligence unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defense had used Microsoft's products to carry out mass surveillance of Palestinians.

In the wake of The Guardian's report last summer, Microsoft commissioned an independent investigation into its business dealings with the Israeli government. The company said in September that evidence supporting elements of The Guardian’s reporting" was found, and Microsoft cut off cloud services to the Israeli military spy agency Unit 8200.

Neither Haimovich nor Microsoft said why he was leaving beyond Microsoft's saying that he will "embark on a new professional path in the fields of technology and artificial intelligence."

"Microsoft, and Microsoft Israel in particular, have shaped both my professional and personal journey since the day I joined in 2019," Haimovich said in a letter to Microsoft employees in Israel. "Together, we built something truly meaningful, steering through complexity and change, positioning Israel as one of Microsoft’s fastest-growing markets worldwide."

Microsoft declined to comment.

Globes, a business-focused Israeli newspaper, reported earlier this week that several other managers in Microsoft Israel's governance department recently left as well after a closer investigation of the subsidiary. Globes also reported that Microsoft Israel will be managed by Microsoft France temporarily.

Before Microsoft's independent review last summer of its contracts in Israel, the company conducted its own internal probe in early 2025, following a separate report from The Guardian that said Israel Defense Forces were increasingly using technology from U.S. tech companies in the Israel-Hamas war. Microsoft said in May 2025 that it found no evidence its technology was used to target people in Gaza and maintained that it had a commercial relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

"As with many governments around the world, we also work with the Israeli government to protect its national cyberspace against external threats, Microsoft said last year.

Since 2024, Microsoft has fired numerous employees who protested the company over its relationship with Israel, including two who disrupted events during Microsoft's 50th anniversary celebration in early April 2025.

Tensions reached a boiling point in August, when protesters from No Azure for Apartheid — an activist group that includes former Microsoft employees — broke into Microsoft President Brad Smith's office to protest. About a week prior, dozens of activists took over part of a plaza on Microsoft's Redmond campus in an encampment-style protest. Eighteen people were arrested on various charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest and obstruction.

Other tech companies have faced backlash for their contracts in Israel as well. In September, a Seattle-based Amazon employee was suspended — and later fired — after he urged employees to join him in protesting Amazon's cloud contracts with the Israeli government. Ahmed Shahrour, a former Amazon software engineer, sent emails to executives and posted in company messaging channels decrying Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract awarded to Amazon and Google by Israel.

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