Microsoft employees claim they were fired for protesting the Israel artificial intelligence contract.

A dismissed employee said, "You claim to use artificial intelligence for good, but Microsoft is selling AI weapons to the Israeli army."

It was alleged that Microsoft fired two employees who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration to protest the company's efforts to supply AI technology to the Israeli army. In a termination letter released on Monday, Microsoft accused one of the employees of "misconduct designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption at this highly anticipated event." Microsoft stated that the other employee had already announced their resignation but requested to leave five days early on Monday. The protests began on Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked toward the stage where a manager was announcing new product features and outlining Microsoft’s long-term vision for AI. Aboussad shouted at Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, "You claim to care about using AI for good, but Microsoft is selling AI weapons to the Israeli army," and continued, "50,000 people have died, and Microsoft is supporting this genocide in our region." The protest caused Mustafa Suleyman to pause his speech while being streamed live from Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington. Among those attending the 50th anniversary of Microsoft were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer. Microsoft stated that Suleyman tried to calm the situation by saying, "Thank you for your protest, I hear you." Aboussad continued to shout that Suleyman and "all of Microsoft" had blood on their hands. Additionally, before being removed from the event, she threw a keffiyeh scarf, which had become a symbol of support for the Palestinian people, onto the stage. A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, also interrupted a later segment of the event.

According to a defense group called No Azure for Apartheid, which protested Microsoft's sales of its Azure cloud computing platform to Israel, Aboussad, who works at Microsoft's Toronto office, was called in for a meeting with a human resources representative on Monday and was told she would be terminated immediately. An Associated Press (AP) investigation earlier this year revealed that Microsoft and OpenAI's AI models were used as part of the Israeli military program to select bombing targets during recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The report also included details about an Israeli airstrike in 2023 that hit a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, resulting in the deaths of three young girls and their grandmother. In the termination letter, Microsoft stated that Aboussad could have communicated her concerns confidentially to a manager. Instead, it noted that she made "hostile, unfounded, and extremely inappropriate allegations" against Suleyman and the company, and that her behavior was "so aggressive and destructive that she had to be removed by security." Agrawal had given two weeks' notice and was preparing to leave the company on April 11, but on Monday a manager sent an email stating, "We have decided that your resignation will take effect as of today."

Previous Protests Against Israel

This was the most public protest regarding Microsoft's work with Israel, but it was not the first protest. In February, five Microsoft employees were removed from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting contracts. In response, the company stated on Friday, "We provide many ways for all voices to be heard. More importantly, we want this to be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. In such cases, we ask participants to change their seats. We are committed to ensuring that our business practices meet the highest standards." Microsoft refrained from saying whether it would take further steps on Friday, but Aboussad and Agrawal anticipated that this would happen after they lost access to their work accounts shortly after the protest. Last year, dozens of Google employees were fired following internal protests organized due to a contract with the Israeli government. Employees staging sit-ins at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California targeted a $1.2 billion (45.6 billion TL) deal known as Project Nimbus, which provides AI technology to the Israeli government. Google employees later filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board to regain their jobs.