Eloise Goldsmith is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
The tech giant Microsoft has fired two software engineers who publicly protested the firm's ties to the Israel i military during an event celebrating the company's 50th anniversary celebration on Friday.
The protests come a few months after the publication of an investigation by The Associated Press which found that Israel's use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology 'skyrocketed' following Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which prompted Israel's deadly campaign on the Gaza Strip. Multiple human rights groups have said Israel is guilty of committing genocide or 'acts of genocide.'Specifically, the investigation found that artificial intelligence 'models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon.'According to the AP, on Friday, while Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was giving a livestreamed talk at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, a software engineer based in Canada, Ibtihal Aboussad, walked up toward the stage and shouted, 'You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military.''Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region,' Aboussad said. Suleyman was forced to pause the speech and responded by thanking Aboussad for her protest and saying, 'I hear you.'Aboussad said that 'all of Microsoft has blood on its hands,' as she was being led out of the room. 'How dare you celebrate when Microsoft is killing children,' Aboussad yelled.According to CNBC, Aboussad then sent an email to Suleyman and other Microsoft executives, including the company's CEO and president.'I spoke up today because after learning that my org was powering the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice,' she wrote in her email, according to the outlet. 'This is especially true when I've witnessed how Microsoft has tried to quell and suppress any dissent from my coworkers who tried to raise this issue.''I did not sign up to write code that violates human rights,' she also wrote.According to a document reviewed by CNBC, Aboussad was fired Monday due to 'just cause, willful misconduct, disobedience, or willful neglect of duty.'Another protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later session that featured Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Agrawal made similar statements to Aboussad, including referencing the death toll in Gaza, while being hurried toward the exit. Both Agrawal and Aboussad are associated with No Azure for Apartheid, a group of Microsoft employees who denounce the firm's Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government, according to The Verge. Azure is the company's cloud computing platform that offers AI services.According to CNBC, Agrawal also sent an email to company executives afterward. 'You may have seen me stand up earlier today to call out Satya during his speech at the Microsoft 50th anniversary,' Agrawal wrote. 'Over the past 1.5 years, I've grown more aware of Microsoft's growing role in the military-industrial complex.'Agrawal wrote that the tech company is 'complicit' as a 'digital weapons manufacturer that powers surveillance, apartheid, and genocide.' She also said that 'by working for this company, we are all complicit,' according to CNBC.Agrawal put in notice prior to her protest that April 11 would be her last day with Microsoft, but on Monday she learned that her termination would be effective immediately.'We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,' Microsoft said in statement Friday, according to the AP. 'Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.'Organizers at the BDS National Committee recently told Drop Site that it will make Microsoft a priority target to pressure the company to end its support for Israel's campaign, following reporting about the Israeli military's use of Microsoft's AI and cloud services.
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