Microsoft has fired two employees at its Redmond, Washington, headquarters for organizing an illegal memorial service for Palestine. The employees were told by phone late Thursday that their jobs had been terminated because of a memorial service held by the employees to pay tribute to Palestinians killed in Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.
Both of the fired employees were part of an employee group called “No Age for Apartheid,” which is protesting Microsoft’s sale of cloud- computing technology to the Israeli government. According to these employees, organizing their funeral was on par with other social activities by Microsoft. Abdo Mohammed, a researcher and data scientist who participated in the event, said, “Many Microsoft community members have lost family or friends, but Microsoft has not allowed us to share in our grief.”
“We have terminated certain employees in accordance with internal company policy,” Microsoft said in a statement Friday, but did not elaborate. Mohammed, who is originally from Egypt, said he now has to find a new job within two months, or his work visa will be cancelled.
Hussam Nasr, another fired employee, said the rally was intended to pay tribute to the victims of Palestine and draw attention to the use of Microsoft technology by the Israeli military. Nasr said the group “Stop Antisemitism” had already announced his firing on social media, but he received a call from Microsoft an hour later.
The same group called on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella a few months ago to take action on Nasr’s stance on Israel. Nasr, who is an alumnus of Harvard University, is also the co- founder of Harvard Alumni for Palestine.
In the same year, Google also fired more than 50 employees after protests at the company’s offices over providing technology to the Israeli government. Under the deal, called “Project Nimbus,” Google and Amazon have agreed to provide Israel with $1.2 billion worth of cloud and artificial intelligence services.
Microsoft said in a statement, “We are committed to maintaining a professional and respectful work environment. For privacy reasons, we cannot provide further details.”