Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to provide details [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorised vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.

The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunchtime event they organised at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.

Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government. But they contended that Thursday’s event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in need.

“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can come together and share our grief and honour the memories of people who can no longer speak for themselves.”

Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to provide details.

Mohamed, who is from Egypt, said he now needs a new job in the next two months to transfer a work visa and avoid deportation.

Another fired worker, Hossam Nasr, said the purpose of the vigil was both “to honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide” because of the use of its technology by the Israeli military.

Nasr said his firing was disclosed on social media by the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism more than an hour before he received the call from Microsoft. The group didn’t immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on how it learned about the firing.

The same group had months earlier called on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to take action against Nasr for his public stances on Israel.

Nasr, an Egyptian-raised 2021 graduate of Harvard University, is also a co-organiser of Harvard Alumni for Palestine.

Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

Microsoft said in its statement Friday about the firings that it remains “dedicated to maintaining a professional and respectful work environment. Due to privacy and confidentiality considerations, we cannot provide specific details.”

A counter-protester holding an Israeli flag walks into the parking lot near a protest at Google Cloud offices in Sunnyvale, California, U.S. on April 16, 2024. REUTERS/Nathan Frandino
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Several Google employees in the U.S. were placed on leave and/or arrested after they carried out a sit-in protest at company offices in New York and California to demonstrate against Project Nimbus – a $1.2 billion deal with Amazon that supports the Israeli government’s technology infrastructure.

The organisation No Tech for Apartheid issued a statement on Thursday, claiming that over two dozen Google workers had been “indiscriminately” fired in an act of retaliation by the company.

During the sit-ins on Tuesday, protesting workers livestreamed footage of themselves being arrested in both cities, with the No Tech for Apartheid organisation calling them the ‘Nimbus Nine.’ The sit-ins lasted close to 10 hours, with workers holding up signs calling for Project Nimbus to be dropped.

“Google cited “bullying” and “harassment” as the reasons for workers’ firing. If there has been any bullying or harassment at the company, our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim colleagues have been the recipients,” said No Tech for Apartheid in its statement, adding that Google’s allegations of property damage were false.

(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)

Tech workers worldwide are split in their reaction to the ongoing bombardment of Palestinians in the Gaza strip, with some openly supporting Israel’s military and volunteering their services to help locate people taken hostage by Hamas, while others are organising targeted boycotts against firms like HP and Siemens, or disrupting the companies supporting Israel’s military.

OpenAI chief Sam Altman said in January that Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian colleagues in tech were fearful of sharing their experiences, as they worried about retaliation or hurting their career. Acknowledging he was Jewish, Altman said that he received support in the face of growing antisemitism but that his Muslim peers did not receive similar backing.

Another OpenAI official deleted his posts on X and apologised in December after it was found he was calling for the Israeli military to increase its bombardment of Gaza.

No Tech for Apartheid promised that it would keep organising until Project Nimbus was dropped.

“Google has built custom tools for Israel’s Ministry of “Defense,” and has doubled down on contracting with the Israeli Occupation Forces, since the start of its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. By continuing its lies, Google is blatantly disrespecting and disregarding consumers, the media, as well as, most importantly, its workers,” said No Tech for Apartheid, calling chief Sundar Pichai and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian “genocide profiteers”.

Oxfam International said in January this year that Israel’s military was killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day.