Microsoft has fired Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, the two software engineers who protested the tech company’s work with the Israeli military last week during the company’s 5oth anniversary celebrations.
Aboussad, who worked for Microsoft’s artificial intelligence division, walked onstage while Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was speaking.
“Mustafa, shame on you,” Aboussad shouted as she interrupted the speech. “You claim that you care for using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
She continued: “You have blood on your hands. All of Microsoft has blood on its hands.”
According to CNBC, after Aboussad appeared onstage Friday she sent an email a number of Microsoft executives including Suleyman, CEO Satya Nadella, company president Brad Smith, COO Carolina Dybeck Happe, and CFO Amy Hood.
“I spoke up today because after learning that my org was powering the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice,” she wrote. “This is especially true when I’ve witnessed how Microsoft has tried to quell and suppress any dissent from my coworkers who tried to raise this issue. For the past year and a half, our Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim community at Microsoft has been silenced, intimidated, harassed, and doxxed, with impunity from Microsoft. Attempts at speaking up at best fell on deaf ears, and at worst, led to the firing of two employees for simply holding a vigil.”
Later during the event, held Friday at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquaters, Agrawal shouted “Shame on you all. You’re all hypocrites. Fifty thousand Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating in their blood. Cut ties with Israel,” while founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer were onstage with current CEO Satya Nadella.
Afterward she tendered her resignation via email, effective Friday, April 11, but Microsoft terminated her on Monday instead. Aboussad was also fired on Monday.
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
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