Microsoft Fires Two Employees for Protests Against Israel

Publish date: Tuesday، 08 April 2025

The multinational technology conglomerate Microsoft fired two employees on Monday for their protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza during the 50th anniversary of the company.

Ibtihal Aboussad disrupted a speech on Friday, Apr. 4, by the company's AI head, Mustafa Suleyman. She called on the company to stop providing their AI technology to the Israeli military, assisting them in their attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza.

Later on, Vaniya Agrawal, disrupted the Q&A session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

During the disruptions, the event staff asked both employees to leave the venue at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

After the protest, Agrawal submitted her resignation, to be effective from Apr. 11, citing that she could not continue working with the company as it sells technology to "power genocide", according to the letter accessed by Verge.

On Monday, Microsoft accepted her resignation and made it effective immediately.

In Aboussad's termination notice, Microsoft described her accusations as "hostile, unprovoked and highly inappropriate” and cited that her employment had been terminated because of "acts of misconduct", according to an email seen by Bloomberg.

Aboussad and Agrawal were both software engineers at Microsoft; they are affiliated with No Azure for Apartheid, which protests against Microsoft's sales to Israel.

Both employees lost access to their work emails and chat accounts immediately after their protests on Friday.

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Microsoft Fires Two Employees for Protests Against Israel

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