Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the business’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.

The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunchtime occurrence they organized at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.

Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government. But they contended that Thursday’s occurrence was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in require.

“We have so many throng members within Microsoft who have lost household, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can arrive together and distribute our grief and integrity the memories of people who can no longer talk for themselves.”

Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to provide details.

Mohamed, who is from Egypt, said he now needs a recent 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 both “to integrity the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide” because of the use of its technology by the Israeli military.

Nasr said his firing was disclosed on social media by the watchdog throng Stop Antisemitism more than an hour before he received the call from Microsoft. The throng didn’t immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on how it learned about the firing.

The same throng had months earlier called on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to receive action against Nasr for his community stances on Israel.

Nasr, an Egyptian-raised 2021 graduate of Harvard University, is also a co-organizer of Harvard Alumni for Palestine.

Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the business is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “assignment Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion deal signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

Microsoft said in its statement Friday about the firings that it remains “dedicated to maintaining a professional and respectful work surroundings. Due to privacy and confidentiality considerations, we cannot provide specific details.”