CHICAGO: More than 2,000 Microsoft employees have accused the US company in a signed petition of supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza using technology it produces, and are demanding that it cut ties with the country’s military.
Microsoft has fired employees who have openly criticized it for providing the Israel Defense Forces and its infamous Unit 8200 with artificial intelligence technology that helps target Palestinians using data on the company’s Azure cloud storage system.
At a press conference attended by Arab News, the fired employees accused Microsoft of “complicity” in the genocide that has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children.
They said they have organized “non-violent” protests at the company’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, including a sit-in on Tuesday at the offices of Microsoft President Brad Smith.
“I was fired the next day through a voicemail from Microsoft,” said Riki Fameli, a Microsoft software engineer who participated in the sit-in dubbed “No Azure for Apartheid.”
He added: “I recognize the emergency that’s happening in regards to Microsoft’s complicity in this genocide, and I realized long ago that Microsoft won’t do anything to address it without unrelenting pressure from both the public and from its own workers.”
In a statement to Arab News, a Microsoft spokesman said it was made aware of “new allegations” about Israel’s use of Azure by 35 protesters on Aug. 19.
Company officials said they are pursuing “a thorough and independent review,” and will “uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.”
Microsoft claims that protesters returned on Aug. 20 “and engaged in vandalism and property damage. They also disrupted, harassed, and took tables and tents from local small businesses at a lunchtime farmer’s market for employees.” The company praised Redmond Police for arresting and charging the former employees.
In response, the fired employees called the Microsoft investigation into possible misuse of their technology to target and kill Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank “a sham.”
They vehemently denied engaging in vandalism or violence during the sit-ins. Seven employees, including Fameli, were arrested at Tuesday’s sit-in.
Microsoft engineer Anna Hattle, who was also fired this week, said she has tried to make the company aware of how their technology is being used to “kill people.”
She added: “When I joined this company as a software engineer five years ago, I never expected that my employer would have me literally dragged out of my own workplace for taking a stand for ethics and human rights.
“Microsoft is attempting to paint protesters in a negative light in order to distract from the fact that it is Microsoft itself, not the protesters, that is the perpetrator of mass violence and crimes against humanity.”
Hattle and Fameli were arrested and taken to South Correctional Entity in Des Moines, where they were charged with trespassing and obstructing law officers. They were released on bail along with the others who were arrested at the sit-in.
“I've sat through so many internal employee meetings in which questions about Israel’s deep connections to Microsoft have been blocked from being brought up, or given non-answers,” Fameli said.
“Microsoft has dragged its feet at every opportunity to hold the Israeli military accountable, but has acted with incredible haste in repressing worker sentiment about the issue of Palestine.
“It’s completely insane to me that the Israeli Intelligence Corps Unit 8200 has been able to continue operating on Azure without restriction.”
Fired employee Nisreen Jadarat said she and others tried to present Microsoft officials with the petition this week, but it was physically taken from them and torn apart.
“This violent response to a paper with the names of workers who are calling for an end to an abetment to genocide is a reflection of what Microsoft truly thinks of its workers’ opinions,” Jadarat said.
“While Microsoft insisted that we should follow the proper channels instead of protesting, last May Microsoft simultaneously banned the use of the words Palestine, Gaza, genocide and apartheid from all (internal) email communications in a brazen, self-described attempt to silence email-related protest, effectively preventing us from following those channels.”
Jadarat added: “Emails containing those words would either not be delivered, or they’d be delivered after hours of delay, after what was presumably a manual review with no transparency on who was reading emails besides the intended recipients.”
Fired employee Joe Lopez said: “They’ve attempted to silence myself and others by firing us, brutalizing us via police force, and spreading a false narrative about us in the media that we’re violent or aggressive.
“I was tackled and apprehended by four officers as I attempted to leave last week’s encampment.” He added that the protests will continue.
Fameli said: “Microsoft has dragged its feet at every opportunity to address the mass death that’s directly enabled through its technological infrastructure.
“Our drastic action is a direct response to its drastic inaction in cutting ties with customers that have continually violated international law and Microsoft’s own human rights standards.”
