Microsoft fires two employees after protest over Israel ties, office break-in

ANKARA

Microsoft said Thursday it had terminated two employees who broke into President Brad Smith’s office earlier this week during a protest over the company’s alleged ties to Israel, according to media reports.

The firings followed a demonstration Tuesday by seven current and former employees at the company’s Redmond headquarters. The activists, affiliated with the group No Azure for Apartheid, entered Smith’s office to demand that Microsoft end what they described as direct and indirect support for Israel in its war on Gaza.

No Azure for Apartheid, the group named after Microsoft’s flagship cloud computing service Azure, identified the dismissed employees on Instagram as Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle.

“Two employees were terminated today following serious breaches of company policies and our code of conduct,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, according to CNBC.

The company described the incidents as “unlawful break-ins” at executive offices and said they violated workplace expectations.

Protesters on Tuesday gathered inside the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith in Building 34, where they chanted slogans and held banners.

One sign renamed the office the “Mai Ubeid Building,” honoring a Palestinian software engineer from Gaza killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023. Another banner called on Microsoft to “cut ties with Israel,” among other demands.

Police arrested seven people who entered Smith’s office, reports said.

Bloomberg previously reported that Microsoft has faced a “small but persistent revolt” over the past year from employees urging the company to end its business ties with Israel amid the Gaza war.

The company reportedly sought help from the FBI and worked with local law enforcement to monitor and suppress protests.

The latest demonstration follows reports that Israel’s Unit 8200 used Microsoft Azure to store Palestinian phone call recordings. Earlier this year, the Associated Press revealed Microsoft’s partnership with Israel’s Defense Ministry to process intelligence for target selection.

After the AP report, Microsoft said an internal review found no evidence that Azure or its AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. While it did not publish the review, the company said it would share factual findings from a follow-up review prompted by The Guardian once completed.

Israel has killed nearly 63,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine, rendering it uninhabitable.