Microsoft fires two employees who organized pro-Palestine vigil

Washington (Quds News Network)- Microsoft has fired two employees who organized a vigil at the company’s headquarters to honor the Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing genocide war and to call “attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide.”
The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunchtime event they organized at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.
Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli occupation government.
“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist.
“But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can come together and share our grief and honor the memories of people who can no longer speak for themselves.”
Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy.”
It added it remains “dedicated to maintaining a professional and respectful work environment. Due to privacy and confidentiality considerations, we cannot provide specific details.”
Mohamed, who is from Egypt, said he now needs a new job in the next two months to transfer a work visa and avoid deportation.
Another fired worker, Hossam Nasr, said the purpose of the vigil was both “to honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide” because of the use of its technology by the Israeli military.
Israel has killed at least 42,847 Palestinians since the start of the ongoing genocide war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Nasr said his firing was disclosed on social media by the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism more than an hour before he received the call from Microsoft.
The same group had months earlier called on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to take action against Nasr for his public pro-Palestine stances.
Update: antisemite Hossam Mabed Nasr is no longer with Microsoft. https://t.co/bkBEbY2Wmf
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 25, 2024
Nasr, an Egyptian-raised 2021 graduate of Harvard University, is also a co-organizer of Harvard Alumni for Palestine.
Earlier this year, Google also fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war.
The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.