Microsoft: Powering Israel’s Genocide? | Hossam Nasr

In the first episode of Occupied Tech, a new podcast brought to you by Tech for Palestine in collaboration with Palestine Deep Dive, Paul Biggar speaks to Hossam Nasr – a former Microsoft employee who was fired in 2024 after organising a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza.

Nasr exposes the company’s major role in Israel’s genocide and apartheid and discusses efforts to organise workers and activists to resist its complicity.

No Azure for Apartheid (Noaa) is a worker-led group of tech workers within Microsoft, co-founded by Nasr. Its members are committed to exposing the complicity of specific technologies, including Microsoft's AI software Azure.
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Occupied Tech

In each episode, Paul Biggar introduces a new guest to break down the mechanics of the tech industry and how it powers Israel’s genocide, apartheid and occupation – looking at the companies, investors and individuals behind it. And most importantly, spotlighting the people resisting this oppression.
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Episode 1. Microsoft: Powering Israel’s Genocide?

Nasr exposes the company’s major role in Israel’s genocide and apartheid and discusses efforts to organise workers and activists to resist its complicity through the organisation he co-founded No Azure for Apartheid (Noaa).

Noaa is a worker-led group of tech workers within Microsoft. Its members are committed to exposing the complicity of specific technologies, including Microsoft's AI software Azure.

More than just a profit-seeking organisation, Nasr identifies Microsoft as a genocidal digital weapons manufacturer – as the most trusted tech provider for the Israeli government and military, Nasr explains how Microsoft aids Israel’s combat and intelligence activities, storing illegally collected data to surveil Palestinians and more.

Episode 1. was recorded back in June 2025, but new revelations reported recently in The Guardian also expose how Microsoft Azure servers in Europe have been storing ‘a million calls an hour’ in an expansive Israeli surveillance operation against Palestinians – data used by Israel to conduct lethal strikes in its ongoing genocide on Gaza.
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Hossam Nasr is an Egyptian software engineer and an alumnus of Harvard’s Computer Science programme. He is a former Microsoft employee and co-founder of No Azure for Apartheid, a movement of Microsoft workers demanding that Microsoft end its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide.

https://www.noazureforapartheid.com

Paul Biggar is the founder of Tech For Palestine, a coalition of thousands of founders, engineers, product marketers, investors and other professionals who are working in support of Palestinian liberation. He is an Irish software engineer who founded the unicorn company CircleCI in 2011, before being fired from its board in 2023 for support of Palestine.

https://www.techforpalestine.org
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0:00 Intro
03:24 Is Microsoft evil?
07:41 What is No Azure for Apartheid?
13:47 How does Noaa organise?
15:29 Beginnings of Noaa
19:45 Fired from Microsoft
20:56 Microsoft's complicity
26:10 Pressure campaigns at Microsoft before October 7
35:25 Hossam Nasr’s roots
37:40 Building risk tolerance
38:35 Shifting gears post October 7th
40:02 Microsoft's firing of Hossam
41:26 Capitalist + Zionist suppression at Microsoft
44:26 Investigated for Palestinian solidarity
47:34 Microsoft’s internal doxxing campaign
52:46 Microsoft's direct involvement in genocide
58:41 Cloud and AI are weapons, Microsoft a weapons manufacturer
59:35 Israel’s coopting of tech to subjugate Palestinians
1:07:00 Microsoft's future legacy as genocidal big tech