REDMOND, Washington — Police arrested seven people on Tuesday after protesters occupied the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, as part of continued protests over the company’s alleged ties to the Israel Defense Forces during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, organizers said.
Current and former Microsoft employees were among those arrested, said the protest group No Azure for Apartheid.
Azure is Microsoft’s primary cloud computing platform, and Microsoft has said it is reviewing a report in British newspaper The Guardian this month that the IDF used it to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The protesters could be seen huddled together on a Twitch livestream as officers moved in to arrest them. The video showed another group assembled outside.
During a media briefing, Smith said two of those arrested were Microsoft employees.
Eighteen people were arrested in a similar protest in a plaza at the headquarters last week. The group has been protesting the company for months. Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella, and in April it fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.
The group’s demands include that the company cut ties with Israel and pay reparations to Palestinians.
“There are many things we can’t do to change the world, but we will do what we can and what we should,” Smith told reporters at a media briefing following Tuesday’s arrests. “That starts with ensuring that our human rights principles and contractual terms of service are upheld everywhere, by all of our customers around the world.”
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.
In the statement Tuesday, the protest groups said the disruptions were “to protest Microsoft’s active role in the genocide of Palestinians.”
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.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.