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https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft-fires-employees-who-organized-vigil-for-palestinians-killed-in-gaza/
Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in
Gaza
Oct. 25, 2024 at 6:12 pm
The Microsoft logo in Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, France, April
12, 2016. (Michel Euler / The Associated Press, file)
The Microsoft logo in Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, France, April
12, 2016. (Michel Euler / The Associated Press, file)
By Matt O'Brien
The Associated Press
Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at
the company’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 event 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 event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving
campaigns for people in need.
“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost
family, 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 come together and share our grief and honor the memories of
people who can no longer speak 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 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
both “to honor 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 group
Stop Antisemitism more than an hour before he received the call from
Microsoft. The group didn’t immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on how it learned about the firing.
The same group had months earlier called on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
to take action against Nasr for his public 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 company is supplying the Israeli government
amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract 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
environment. Due to privacy and confidentiality considerations, we
cannot provide specific details.”
Microsoft Philanthropies underwrites some Seattle Times journalism projects.
Matt O'Brien.
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