MICROSOFT WORKER PROTESTS▊
Event / campaign dossier Redmond, Washington Apr–Sep 2025
Over 2025, a group of Microsoft employees calling itself “No Azure for Apartheid” disrupted the company's 50th-anniversary event and its Build conference, occupied the office of company president Brad Smith, and staged a campus encampment. Police made arrests; Microsoft fired several of those involved. The company published statements, commissioned an outside review, and in September said it had ceased some services to a unit of Israel's Ministry of Defense. This file records what is documented, from both sides.
Based on these reviews, including interviewing dozens of employees and assessing documents, we have found no evidence to date that Microsoft's Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza.
Microsoft, official statement “on the issues relating to technology services in Israel and Gaza,” blogs.microsoft.com (May 15, 2025)
End Microsoft's complicity in Israeli genocide and apartheid by terminating all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government.
No Azure for Apartheid, its central stated demand, on the group's own site noazureforapartheid.com
- THE COMPANY
- Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington — publicly confirmed it provides the Israel Ministry of Defense “software, professional services, Azure cloud services, and Azure AI services, including language translation” FACT
- THE ORGANIZERS
- No Azure for Apartheid — a group of current and former Microsoft employees, part of the “No Tech for Apartheid” network, demanding Microsoft end its Azure contracts with the Israeli military and government FACT
- NAMED EXEC
- Brad Smith, Microsoft vice-chair & president — the executive whose office was occupied on Aug 26, 2025, and who signed the company's public statements FACT
- THE TRIGGER
- Reporting by the Associated Press (Feb 2025) and by The Guardian / +972 Magazine / Local Call (Aug 2025) about the Israeli military's use of Microsoft Azure and AI ATTRIBUTED
- THE RECORD
- Disruptions of two Microsoft events, a campus encampment, an executive-office occupation, arrests on trespass/obstruction, several firings, a company-commissioned outside review, and a September service cut-off FACT
- ADJUDICATION
- None. No court has ruled on the parties' competing claims. The surveillance and targeting allegations are reporting and advocacy; Microsoft's findings are Microsoft's own. This page adjudicates nothing. FACT
This file is a labor dispute inside a technology company, and it is charged all the way through. The archive's job here is narrow: set down what is documented — who did what, when; who was arrested; who was fired; what each side said in its own name — and attribute every characterization to whoever made it.
What follows is the sequence in order, with a receipt on every beat. Both sides get the microphone at full strength. Nothing on this page is a verdict on the war, on Microsoft, or on any person. You decide what the record means.
the timeline
ACT I — THE REPORTING (FEB 2025)
The dispute has a documented starting point: news reporting about how Microsoft's cloud and AI reached the Israeli military. The reporting is the reporting; it is attributed here to the outlets that published it.
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FEB 18, 2025
The Associated Press investigation
The Associated Press reports that the Israeli military's use of Microsoft and OpenAI artificial intelligence, purchased through Azure, rose sharply after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks — by the AP's account, to roughly 200 times a prior baseline — and that the technology was used to help sift intelligence and select targets. The findings are the AP's reporting.
This report, and the later Guardian investigation, are what the employee organizers cite as the basis for their campaign. The dossier records that they cite it; it does not ratify the claims.
ACT II — THE DISRUPTIONS (APR–MAY 2025)
The campaign moves from petitions to the stage. Three company events, three interruptions, three terminations. Each is on video or in the company's own termination record.
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APR 4, 2025
The 50th-anniversary event
At Microsoft's 50th-anniversary event in Redmond, software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad interrupts a talk by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman — “How dare you celebrate when Microsoft is killing children,” she calls out — and engineer Vaniya Agrawal interrupts a later segment with Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, and Steve Ballmer. Both are associated with No Azure for Apartheid. Aboussad afterward circulates an email stating “cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century.”
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APR 7, 2025
The company fires both
Microsoft terminates both engineers. In termination documentation reported by CNBC, the company cites “just cause, wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty,” and describes one worker's conduct as “designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.” Microsoft's stated reason is the disruption, not the viewpoint.
-
MAY 15, 2025
Microsoft's public statement
Microsoft publishes a statement confirming it provides the Israel Ministry of Defense with “software, professional services, Azure cloud services, and Azure AI services, including language translation,” and stating that its internal and external reviews had “found no evidence to date that Microsoft's Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza.” The words are the company's own.
-
MAY 19, 2025
Build 2025
At Microsoft's Build developer conference, firmware engineer Joe Lopez interrupts Satya Nadella's keynote — “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” — before being escorted out. Several other talks at the event are also disrupted. Lopez is subsequently fired; he then sends a company-wide email disputing Microsoft's account of how Azure is used.
ACT III — THE OCCUPATION (AUG 2025)
In August a second investigation is published, and the campaign escalates from interruptions to occupation of Microsoft property. The arrests and the trespass charges are matters of police and press record.
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AUG 6, 2025
The Guardian / +972 / Local Call investigation
The Guardian, with +972 Magazine and Local Call, reports that an Israeli military intelligence unit (identified in the reporting as Unit 8200) used a segregated area of Microsoft Azure to store recordings of large volumes of intercepted Palestinian phone calls. The findings are the outlets' reporting.
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AUG 20, 2025
The encampment and 18 arrests
Protesters organized by No Azure for Apartheid set up an encampment on Microsoft's Redmond campus plaza — which they call a “liberated zone.” Democracy Now reports that 18 people are arrested at the protest of Microsoft's work with the Israeli military.
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AUG 26, 2025
The occupation of Brad Smith's office
Seven current and former Microsoft workers enter Building 34 and occupy the office of president Brad Smith, live-streaming the sit-in. Redmond police remove and arrest the group on trespass and obstruction charges after they decline to leave; Microsoft confirms two of those arrested were current employees. Smith's response: “when seven folks do as they did today — storm a building, occupy an office, block other people out of the office… that's not okay,” adding, “there are many things we can't do to change the world, but we will do what we can and what we should.”
ACT IV — THE REVIEW AND THE CUT-OFF (AUG–SEP 2025)
Microsoft commissions an outside review and, in September, acts on part of it. Both the review and the service cut-off are documented in Microsoft's own words.
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AUG 15, 2025
Microsoft commissions an external review
Microsoft announces it has engaged the law firm Covington & Burling LLP to conduct a formal review of The Guardian's allegations regarding the Israeli military's use of Azure for storing data from surveillance of civilians. The company says the review is underway.
-
SEP 25, 2025
Microsoft ceases a set of services
Brad Smith tells employees Microsoft has “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense,” saying the ongoing review had found “evidence that supports elements of The Guardian's reporting,” including IMOD consumption of Azure storage in the Netherlands and use of AI services. Smith states: “We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians.” Microsoft says the review continues.
both sides, on the record
The organizers' stated case (theirs, attributed): No Azure for Apartheid demands that Microsoft “end Microsoft's complicity in Israeli genocide and apartheid by terminating all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government” [3]. They ground the campaign in the AP's reporting that Israeli-military use of Azure-purchased AI spiked after October 2023 [4] and the Guardian / +972 / Local Call reporting that Azure stored intercepted Palestinian phone-call data [5] [6].
The documented conduct on their side: disruptions of the 50th-anniversary event and Build, a campus encampment, the occupation of Brad Smith's office, and arrests — 18 reported at the Aug 20 protest, seven at the Aug 26 occupation — on trespass and obstruction charges [1] [11] [12].
What they point to as a result: Microsoft's September statement that it had ceased a set of services to a unit within Israel's Ministry of Defense, after a review found “evidence that supports elements of The Guardian's reporting” [2].
Microsoft's position, in its own words: its May statement said internal and external reviews had “found no evidence to date” that its Azure and AI technologies “have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza” [7]. It confirmed the specific services it sells the Israel Ministry of Defense rather than concealing them [7].
Its stated grounds for the firings were conduct, not belief: termination language cited “just cause, wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty” and conduct “designed to… cause maximum disruption” [8]. On the office occupation, Smith said storming a building and blocking colleagues out “is not okay” [11].
On the surveillance question: Microsoft states “we do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” a principle it says it applies in every country; and when its review found supporting evidence for elements of the Guardian reporting, it says it acted on it by disabling the relevant services [2]. The company's broader review remains ongoing; no court has ruled on any of it.
YOU DECIDE
The documented conduct is not in dispute: the disruptions happened, the encampment and the office occupation happened, arrests were made, and Microsoft fired employees who disrupted its events. Microsoft's statements are its statements; the organizers' demands are their demands; the surveillance and targeting claims are the reporting of the AP and of the Guardian / +972 / Local Call, attributed to them. Microsoft said in May it found no evidence its technology was used to harm people in Gaza, and said in September it had ceased a set of services to a unit within Israel's Ministry of Defense after finding evidence supporting elements of the Guardian's reporting. Both statements are on the record; neither has been adjudicated.
This page takes no position on the war, on Microsoft, or on any person named. It records the arrests, the firings, the occupations, and each side's own words — and leaves the weighing to you.
The archive does not judge. The archive keeps the record.
evidence locker
PRIMARY RECORD — THE PARTIES' OWN WORDS
No Azure for Apartheid — the group's own website SELF-PUBLISHED — the organizers' identity, demands, and campaign record, in their own words.
noazureforapartheid.com Microsoft On the Issues — “Update on ongoing Microsoft review” (Sep 25, 2025) SELF-PUBLISHED — the “ceased and disabled a set of services” statement and the review findings, verbatim.
blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/09/25/… No Azure for Apartheid — the group's central demand SELF-PUBLISHED — “terminating all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government.”
noazureforapartheid.com
THE REPORTING (ATTRIBUTED)
+972 Magazine — joint investigation with The Guardian and Local Call on Azure and Unit 8200 (Aug 2025) ATTRIBUTED — the co-published primary; the Palestinian phone-call storage claims, stated as the outlets' reporting. (Host 403s bots; link is live.)
972mag.com/microsoft-azure-openai-israeli-army-cloud/ Al Jazeera — “Microsoft cloud used in Israeli mass surveillance of Palestinians: Report” (Aug 7, 2025) ATTRIBUTED — summary of the Guardian / +972 / Local Call investigation.
aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/7/… Microsoft On the Issues — statement on technology services in Israel and Gaza (May 15, 2025; updated Aug 15) SELF-PUBLISHED — “no evidence to date”; the IMOD services list; the Covington & Burling review.
blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/05/15/…
THE PROTESTS, THE ARRESTS, THE FIRINGS
CNBC — “Microsoft fires engineers who protested during anniversary celebration” (Apr 7, 2025) FACT — the Aboussad/Agrawal disruption and firings; the termination language.
cnbc.com/2025/04/07/… The Hill — “Microsoft fires employees who protested…” (Apr 2025) FACT — corroboration of the April firings. (403s bots; link is live.)
thehill.com/business/5238939-… Democracy Now — “18 Arrested at Protest of Microsoft's Work with Israel's Military” (Aug 21, 2025) FACT — the Aug 20 encampment and the reported arrest count.
democracynow.org/2025/8/21/headlines/… Arab News — “7 arrested after pro-Palestinian activists occupy Microsoft president's office” (Aug 2025) FACT — corroboration of the Aug 26 occupation and arrests. (403s bots; link is live.)
arabnews.com/node/2613199/media
The standard. Everything above is sourced to the parties' own publications, to police-and-press records of the arrests, and to named news reporting. Documented conduct — the disruptions, the encampment, the office occupation, the arrests, the firings, and each party's published statements — is stated as fact. Every political characterization, and every claim about how Azure or AI was used, is attributed to the party or the outlet that made it and is never adopted in our voice. Loaded terms appear only inside quotations from the source that used them. Individuals are named only where they are public executives or self-identified publicly in mainstream reporting; no motive is asserted about anyone. No court has adjudicated the parties' competing claims, and this page adjudicates nothing. The burden of proof is on us, not the subjects. If it couldn't survive a defamation challenge, it wouldn't be on this page.