WASHINGTON — Microsoft has fired four employees who participated in protests on company premises against the firm’s ties to Israel as it wages war on Hamas in Gaza, including two who took part in a sit-in this week at the office of the company’s president.
Anna Hattle and Riki Fameli received voicemails informing them that they were fired, the anti-Israel protest group No Azure for Apartheid said in a statement on Wednesday.
It added on Thursday that two more workers, Nisreen Jaradat and Julius Shan, were fired. They were among protesters who had recently set up encampments at Microsoft headquarters.
Microsoft said the terminations followed serious breaches of company policies. In its Thursday statement, it said recent on-site demonstrations had “created significant safety concerns.”
No Azure for Apartheid, whose name references Microsoft’s Azure software, has demanded that the company cut its ties to Israel and pay reparations to Palestinians.
“We are here because Microsoft continues to provide Israel with the tools it needs to commit genocide while gaslighting and misdirecting its own workers about this reality,” Hattle said in a statement.
Israel vociferously denies there is a genocide in Gaza and says it takes all measures necessary to ensure that civilians are not harmed as it targets Hamas, which it says is deeply embedded in civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including hospitals, mosques and displaced camps.
Hattle and Fameli were among seven protesters who were arrested on Tuesday after occupying the office of company President Brad Smith. The other five were former Microsoft workers and people outside the company.
Smith has said Microsoft respects “freedom of expression that everyone in this country enjoys as long as they do it lawfully.”
A joint media investigation published this month claimed that an Israeli military surveillance agency was making use of Microsoft’s Azure software to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
The investigation, conducted by the Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and far-left Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, said Israel relied on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians.
In response, Microsoft said it was turning to law firm Covington & Burling LLP to conduct a review.
Other Microsoft workers have also protested the company’s ties to Israel.
In April, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s remarks were interrupted by a pro-Palestinian protesting employee during the technology company’s 50th anniversary celebration over the firm’s ties with Israel. That employee and another protesting employee were also subsequently fired.
Earlier this year, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about Microsoft’s close partnership with the Israeli Defense Ministry, which uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance. The AP reported that the data can be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house, AI-enabled systems to help select targets.
Following the AP’s report, Microsoft said a review found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review, but the company said it would share factual findings from the further review prompted by The Guardian’s report when complete.
Firms and educational institutions have faced protests over ties with Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s military operation has mounted.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
Israel’s subsequent campaign against the terror group in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians — including over 20,000 terror operatives, according to the IDF — caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population and prompted accusations of war crimes and mounting international pressure to end the war.