On Monday, Microsoft reportedly terminated the roles of two software engineers, Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, who protested the companyโs reported dealings with the Israeli military during Microsoftโs Copilot and 50th anniversary event last week.
According to an internal message viewed by CNBC, Microsoft wrote that Aboussad could have raised concerns โconfidentially with your manager, or with Global Employee Relations. Instead, you chose to intentionally disrupt the speech of Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.โ
Last Friday, during the event, Aboussad shouted that Suleyman had โblood on his hands,โ interrupting him while he delivered a keynote about new AI products. Later that day, Agrawal interjected during a panel featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates, shouting โshame on all of you [โฆ] Cut ties with Israel.โ
Shortly after the incidents, Aboussad sent an email to Microsoft staff and executives claiming the company had silenced certain dissenting employees, according to CNBC. The email reportedly contained a link to a petition from โNo Azure for Apartheid,โ a group of Microsoft staffers who have made headlines for their protests against the companyโs work with Israel in the past.
