Group of Microsoft employees hold protest against company’s alleged ties to Israel

Microsoft workers are holding a protest against the company’s contracts with the Israeli military.

The protest began at 11 a.m. at Westlake Park. The protest was created and organized by “No Azure for Apartheid.” The group is made up of Microsoft employees.

In February, an investigation from The Associated Press revealed that the Israeli military used models from Microsoft and OpenAI as part of a program to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon. While Amazon and Google outbid Microsoft to construct Israel’s public-sector cloud infrastructure in 2021, the Israeli military has continually used Microsoft’s technology for many operations, including managing population registries and communicating during airstrikes, according to The Guardian.

While the company has maintained that it only has a commercial relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Microsoft did state it doesn’t have complete visibility regarding how Israel uses its technology.

“As with many governments around the world, we also work with the Israeli government to protect its national cyberspace against external threats,” Microsoft said.

Last week, following internal reviews into allegations that the company was complicit in human rights abuses, Microsoft claimed no evidence was found that its technologies were used by the Israeli military to harm civilians in Gaza, according to GeekWire.

Pro-Palestinian protest interrupts CEO’s keynote

Joe Lopez, a Microsoft firmware engineer, was escorted out by security after he confronted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the Build conference Monday.

“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians?” Lopez yelled, according to The Guardian. “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”

Lopez followed up this stunt with an all-staff email explaining his motives.

“As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel,” Lopez’ email read, which can be found on Medium. “If leadership continues to ignore this demand, I promise that it won’t go unnoticed. The world has already woken up to our complicity and is turning against us. The boycotts will increase and our image will continue to spiral into disrepair.”

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