MICROSOFT TERMINATES EMPLOYEES PROTESTING ITS ISRAEL DEALS

On 7 April, Microsoft terminated—with immediate effect—two employees, Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, after they disrupted its 50th-anniversary celebrations on 4 April in protest of the company providing technical capacities that enable Israel to maintain its apartheid system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and its onslaught in Gaza. 

Some Microsoft employees have repeatedly asked the company to terminate its relationship with Israel to no avail. In 2018, a group of employees in an open letter declared that ‘as the people who build the technologies that Microsoft profits from, we refuse to be complicit.’

After the event, Agrawal publicly handed in her resignation letter, effective 11 April. Following the protests, LinkedIn, the career and employment-based social network, also suspended Aboussad's account, causing an uproar as many demanded LinkedIn reinstate her account.

The two engineers are part of a pro-Palestine group, ‘No Azure For Apartheid,’ comprising technology workers within Microsoft and its subsidiaries who have committed to publicly expose and oppose the tech giant's ‘complicity in Israeli apartheid and gen*cide against the people of Palestine.’ Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing technology that Israel uses.

Microsoft's software partnerships with the Israeli government to support surveillance, among other functions, dates back to a $35-million contract in 2002 to provide technical support to Israel’s military and security apparatus. Despite Microsoft losing a 2021 bid for a $1.2-billion contract, Israel's Ministry of Defence and other departments have used Microsoft's Azure. Microsoft also offers its cloud and consulting services to the Israel Prison Service (IPS), which is accused of grave inhumane atrocities against Palestinian prisoners, including children as young as the 14- to 16-year range. Additionally, controversial companies like Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms maker, also use Microsoft's services. Elbit's profits have surged 14 per cent since Tel Aviv’s onslaught in Gaza began.

Sources

https://medium.com/@noazureforapartheid/why-im-leaving-microsoft-our-moral-responsibility-a-letter-by-vaniya-agrawal-3cbfe25dc1e2

https://medium.com/@notechforapartheid/a-marriage-made-in-hell-an-introduction-to-microsofts-complicity-in-apartheid-and-genocide-d7dfad65a196 

https://investigate.afsc.org/company/microsoft

https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/gaza-violence-indian-origin-vaniya-agrawal-protests-quits-microsoft-125040700503_1.html 

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/vaniya-agarwal-microsoft-employee-pro-palestine-protest-9930566/ 

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/microsoft-workers-fired-after-50th-anniversary-protest-israel-120572412 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/who-is-indian-american-vaniya-agrawal-who-shamed-microsoft-ceos-at-the-companys-50th-anniversary-celebrations-and-sent-company-wide-email-announcing-resignation/articleshow/120040143.cms 

https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2024/12/02/israeli-arms-makers-break-records-for-weapons-sales-amid-gaza-war/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/23/israeli-military-gaza-war-microsoft

https://www.btselem.org/statistics/minors_in_custody

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/elbit-systems-fourth-quarter-profit-revenue-rise-amid-israels-war-vs-hamas-2025-03-18

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2025/04/189566/calls-grow-to-reinstate-moroccan-engineers-linkedin-after-protest-over-gaza-genocide