Microsoft fires employees who organized a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at company headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel's war against Hamas.

The two employees told the Associated Press they were fired via phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunch event they organized at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington.

Both workers were members of an employee coalition called No Azure for Apartheid, which opposed Microsoft's sale of its cloud computing technology to the Israeli government. However, they claimed that Thursday's event was similar to other Microsoft-approved employee fundraising events for people in need.

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

Microsoft said Friday that it had “terminated the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policies,” 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 to “honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and draw attention to Microsoft's complicity in the genocide” because the Israeli military used its technology.

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

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

Nasr, a 2021 Harvard University graduate who grew up in Egypt, is also a co-organizer of Harvard Alumni for Palestine.

Google laid off more than 50 employees earlier this year amid protests over the technology the company supplies to the Israeli government in the Gaza war. The layoffs followed internal unrest and sit-ins at Google offices focused on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion deal signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services for the Israeli government.

Microsoft said in its statement Friday about the layoffs that it remains committed to “maintaining a professional and respectful work environment.” For data protection and confidentiality reasons, we cannot provide any specific information.”