Microsoft employees protest Israel ties at company's headquarters

Microsoft

A group of Microsoft workers and activists staged a protest at the company’s Redmond, Washington headquarters on Tuesday, urging the tech giant to cut ties with Israel over its war in Gaza.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the demonstration, organised by employee coalition No Azure for Apartheid, saw about three dozen people gather in a central plaza on the 500-acre campus. Protesters pitched tents and declared the area a “liberated zone,” before police warned them they were trespassing. The group then shifted to a nearby public sidewalk, as per the report.

“Over 22 months of genocide, Israel — powered by Microsoft — has been killing, maiming Palestinian children every hour,” said protest leader and former employee Hossam Nasr, addressing colleagues through a microphone. Microsoft staffer Nisreen Jaradat echoed the criticism, calling the company “the most complicit digital arms manufacturer in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.”

The employees argue that Microsoft’s cloud division, Azure, is enabling Israeli government and military operations. The platform provides software and data storage to government agencies, which, according to critics, can be weaponised in military campaigns. Several organisers have previously been dismissed after staging what Microsoft described as unauthorised disruptions of corporate events.

The company, however, maintains that it has no evidence Azure or AI tools have been used to target civilians. In a blog post published in May, Microsoft said it monitors use of its technology and has not found misuse in the Gaza conflict.

Still, pressure has grown. Earlier this month, Microsoft said it hired law firm Covington & Burling to investigate fresh reports that Israel’s military surveillance agency intercepted millions of Palestinian calls and stored the data on Azure servers — a trove allegedly used to guide bombing targets. Microsoft has not publicly commented on the latest employee protest.