Microsoft Protesters Occupy President’s Office as Company Reviews Its Work with Israel’s Military
Police arrested seven people Tuesday after they occupied the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith as part of continued protests over the company’s ties to the Israeli army during the ongoing war in Gaza, organizers said.
Current and former Microsoft employees were among those arrested, said the protest group No Azure for Apartheid. Azure is Microsoft’s primary cloud computing platform, and Microsoft has said it is reviewing a report in a British newspaper this month that Israel has used it to facilitate attacks on Palestinian targets.
The protesters could be seen huddled together on a Twitch livestream as officers moved in to arrest them. The video showed another group assembled outside.
During a media briefing Tuesday afternoon, Smith said two of those arrested were Microsoft employees.
Eighteen people were arrested in a similar protest in a plaza at the headquarters last week. The group has been protesting against the company for months. Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella, and in April it fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.
The group’s demands include that the company cut ties with Israel and pay reparations to Palestinians.
The British newspaper The Guardian reported this month that the Israeli military had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
