Microsoft fires two employees for organizing protests in support of Palestinians

The duo are members of an employee coalition called No Azure for Apartheid, which opposed Microsoft’s sale of cloud computing technology to Israel.

Washington: Microsoft fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters in honor of Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas. Both employees said they were fired over the phone late Thursday, hours after a lunch event they hosted at Microsoft’s Redmond campus. Washington.

Both workers were members of an employee coalition called No Azure for Apartheid, which opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud computing technology to the Israeli government. But they argued Thursday’s event was similar to others sanctioned by Microsoft employees running campaigns for people in need.

“We have so many community members at Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or lost loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft hasn’t really given us a place where we can come together and share our grief and honor the people who can no longer speak for themselves.”

Microsoft said it had “stopped hiring certain individuals in accordance with internal policies” but declined to provide details. Mohamed, originally from Egyptsaid he now needed a new job in the next two months to reschedule his work visa and avoid deportation.

Another fired worker, Hossam Nasr, said the purpose of the action was to “honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in the Gaza Strip and draw attention to Microsoft’s complicity in genocide” due to the use of its technology by the Israeli military.