Microsoft has dismissed two software engineers following their public protests against the company’s contracts with the Israeli military. The firings, which were cited as “wilful misconduct” and disruptive to business activities, come amid growing concerns over Big Tech’s involvement in armed conflicts and the role of artificial intelligence in warfare.
Ibtihal Aboussad, a member of Microsoft’s AI division based in Canada, interrupted a keynote by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations in Redmond, Washington. During the livestreamed event, she shouted, “Mustafa, shame on you,” accusing Microsoft of “powering this genocide in our region.” Aboussad also called Suleyman a “war profiteer” and threw a keffiyeh scarf on stage before being escorted out by security. Following the protest, she emailed top Microsoft executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, expressing her outrage over the company’s role in “powering the genocide of my people in Palestine.” Microsoft informed her shortly after that her employment was terminated.
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Vaniya Agrawal, another engineer based in the US, staged a similar protest at a session with Satya Nadella. Although Agrawal had already planned to resign by April 11, Microsoft made her departure immediate. She, too, criticized the company in an email to leadership, calling Microsoft a “digital weapons manufacturer” complicit in “surveillance, apartheid, and genocide.”
These protests occurred shortly after a report revealed that Microsoft and OpenAI technologies were reportedly used in Israeli military operations targeting Gaza and Lebanon. Microsoft has not confirmed the specific allegations but issued a statement emphasizing that while the company supports diverse voices, such expressions must not disrupt business operations. This incident adds to the growing controversy over tech companies’ contracts with the Israeli government, following similar protests at other companies like Google, where employees were fired after sit-ins against the company’s Project Nimbus AI deal with Israel.
Advocacy groups such as No Azure for Apartheid have condemned the firings, describing them as retaliation against employees speaking out for human rights. The group is calling for the reinstatement of the fired workers, arguing they were standing up for justice.
