On Friday, during the company’s 50th-anniversary event, Aboussad interrupted Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s presentation.
US tech giant Microsoft has reportedly fired two software engineers who protested the company’s AI technology supply to the Israeli military.
Ibtihal Aboussad, a software engineer in Microsoft’s AI division, was fired on Monday for “willful misconduct, disobedience, or neglect of duty,” according to a CNBC report on Monday cited by the Anadolu news agency.
Vaniya Agrawal, another engineer, had planned to resign on April 11, but the company made her resignation effective immediately on Monday, according to the report.
Pro-Palestinian Microsoft employees disrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations, publicly condemning its contracts with the Israeli military.
One protester interrupted AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s speech, accusing Microsoft of complicity in genocide and throwing a… pic.twitter.com/6gf1YSLgL1
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) April 5, 2025
On Friday, during the company’s 50th-anniversary event, Aboussad interrupted Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s presentation, yelling “Mustafa, shame on you,” and adding “You have blood on your hands.”
“All of Microsoft has blood on its hands,” she continued.
‘Microsoft Powers Genocide’
She accused Microsoft of enabling the Israeli military with AI weapons, saying: “You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military.”
Aboussad added: “50,000 people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”
Her protest forced Suleyman to pause his talk while it was being livestreamed from Washington, the Associated Press (AP) reported, adding that the software engineer was escorted out of the event.
Suppression of Dissent Alleged
Later, Agrawal disrupted a separate panel featuring CEO Satya Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates, shouting: “Shame on all of you. … Cut ties with Israel.”
Her name is Ibtihal Aboussad. She wrote a letter to her colleagues you can read here:https://t.co/aGnmR6av9P
To go up against your boss like this publicly takes real courage. https://t.co/seGiBJyRo6 pic.twitter.com/yWSvKy7Kps
— omar (@theomaramo) April 4, 2025
Following the protests, Aboussad emailed Suleyman and other Microsoft executives, alleging that the company had suppressed dissent among employees.
“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,” Aboussad wrote in the email seen by CNBC.
The email reportedly included a link to a petition from “No Azure for Apartheid,” a group of Microsoft employees who have previously protested the company’s ties to Israel.
“I did not sign up to write code that violates human rights,” Aboussad stated.
Microsoft’s Response
Microsoft responded, the report said, by saying Aboussad’s email served as “an admission that you deliberately and willfully engaged in your earlier misconduct.”
The company said it “has concluded that your misconduct was designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.”
“Immediate cessation of your employment is the only appropriate response,” the email added.
Complicit in Genocide
Agrawal similarly expressed her concerns in an email, criticizing Microsoft’s involvement in the military-industrial complex and labeling the company “complicit” in supporting surveillance, apartheid, and genocide.
She was told in an email on Monday that Microsoft “has decided to make your resignation immediately effective today,” according to the Associated Press.
A Microsoft spokesperson reportedly said on Friday that “We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard. Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate.”
The Israeli military employs AI to analyze intelligence, intercept communications and surveillance data for signs of suspicious behavior and track enemy movements.
(PC, Anadolu, Agencies)
Good for her! But…
she only just found out? She had NO IDEA that Microsoft was enabling the use of A.I., in Wasrael until just now? That’s weird, right? A software engineer chose to protest only now, during a live-streamed event.
But…good for her.
It is all about the timing, I believe. For sure, she could have reisgned or protested since the first few days/months of this ongoing genocide. But how much attention to the Palestinian cause would such act generate at the time? A couple of few-lines-articles here and there, if at all. But this brave lady’s timing to protest Microsoft fueling the genocide was just perfect. Interupting the AI CEO’s presentation during the company’s 50th anniversary event has garnered so much attention that even Zionist-biased media outlets had to report this. Now everybody is aware that Microsoft is just another scumbag company that profits from the bloodshed of the innocence.
She is a great lady with a generous heart.
These women should get medals for exposing those murderous Microsoft bosses. Boeing isn’t the only purveyor of genocide in Puget Sound.