The Indian-origin software engineer who had yelled at Microsoft's current and former CEOs Satya Nadella, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates during the tech giant's 50th anniversary event last week over its ties with the Israeli government on Monday revealed why she decided to quit.
Vaniya Agrawal was protesting Microsoft’s business dealings with the government of Israel amid an ongoing war in Gaza, which has already killed more than 50,000 people with a significant number of them being children.
“Shame on you all. You’re all hypocrites," the techie said at the event. “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating on their blood. Cut ties with Israel."
In a mass email, Agrawal defended her actions and accused the company of participating in "violent injustice".
“Microsoft cloud and AI enable the Israeli military to be more lethal and destructive in Gaza. It is undeniable that Microsoft’s Azure cloud offerings and AI developments form the technological backbone of Israel’s automated apartheid and genocide systems,” she wrote in the email.
Elaborating on her journey with the tech giant, Agrawal said that she joined Microsoft a year and a half ago just as she started to witness "the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel". "I’ve seen unspeakable suffering amidst Israel’s mass human rights violations - indiscriminate carpet bombings, the targeting of hospitals and schools, and the continuation of an apartheid state... And as I write this, Israel has broken the ceasefire and resumed its full-scale genocide in Gaza."
"Just days ago, it was revealed that Israel killed fifteen paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza, executing them 'one by one,' before burying them in the sand - yet another horrific war crime. Meanwhile, our labour powers this genocide, and I cannot, in good conscience, be part of a company that participates in this violent injustice,” she wrote, adding that she was finding it difficult to continue working with a company that is "on the wrong side of history".
"Leaving my job at Microsoft has become the obvious choice for me, and I see no alternative but to use my last few days at Microsoft to speak up however I can, whether by disrupting Satya’s talk, or by sending this email today. Microsoft leadership must divest from Israel and stop selling lethal technology to power apartheid and genocide," Agrawal said.
She also urged other employees to use their "position, power, and privilege" to hold Microsoft accountable to its own values and mission and highlighted that the company's human rights statement prohibits retaliation against anyone who raises a human rights-related concern.
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