SAN FRANCISCO
Microsoft has fired four employees in response to a protest over the company’s alleged ties to Israel, with two more dismissed after a break-in at President and Vice-Chair Brad Smith’s office at the company’s Redmond headquarters in Washington state.
“Two additional employees were terminated due to serious violations of established company policies and our code of conduct,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CBS News on Thursday. The company had announced the initial two firings in relation to the event on Wednesday.
Now totaling four, the firings followed a demonstration on Tuesday by seven current and former employees at the company’s Redmond headquarters in Washington state. The activists, affiliated with the group No Azure for Apartheid, entered Smith’s office to demand that Microsoft end what they described as direct and indirect support for Israel in its war on Gaza.
The No Azure for Apartheid group identified the dismissed employees on Instagram as Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle, following their arrest by police on Tuesday.
A Microsoft spokesperson said on Thursday that the company is continuing to investigate the incident and working with law enforcement, stressing that the conduct was “entirely unacceptable” and violated company values and policies.
Protesters on Tuesday gathered inside the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith in Building 34, where they chanted slogans and held banners.
One sign renamed the office the “Mai Ubeid Building,” honoring a Palestinian software engineer from Gaza killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023. Another banner called on Microsoft to “cut ties with Israel,” among other demands.
Police arrested seven people who entered Smith’s office, reports said.
Bloomberg previously reported that Microsoft has faced a “small but persistent revolt” over the past year from employees urging the company to end its business ties with Israel amid the Gaza war.
The latest demonstration follows reports that Israel’s Unit 8200 used Microsoft Azure to store Palestinian phone call recordings.
Earlier this year, the Associated Press revealed Microsoft’s partnership with Israel’s Defense Ministry to process intelligence for target selection.
Following the AP report, Microsoft said an internal review revealed no evidence that Azure or its AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. While the review was not published, the company announced that it would share factual findings from a follow-up review requested by The Guardian once completed.
