Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s yearlong war with Hamas.

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.

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 government. But they contended that Thursday’s event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in need.

“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” but declined to provide details.

Google earlier this year 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.

  • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Check the username dude wrong person, besides you started the whole thing by accusing them of goalpost moving.

    • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      2 months ago

      I accused the community as a whole of goalpost moving.

      But you’re right, i did get the username wrong.

      With that being said, I’m not here as community support. Im not offering you or anyone support. I am calling out the inaccuracies and the slander.

          • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
            14·
            2 months ago

            You went from accusing him of goalpost moving to claiming youre accusing the whole community

            • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              2 months ago

              I listed a bunch of things that have been said by the community in the past, and pointed out that they made a statement that fell into that larger bucket.

              So, i would be willing to concede that I lumped them in with the greater whole. But: I did not start with the aggressive namecalling.

              • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
                11·
                2 months ago

                Should probably make that clearer next time you copy paste that then, very easy to misinterpret that as a attack. And yeah he was the first to do the name calling I’m not touching that.

                • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  41·
                  2 months ago

                  I actually hand-typed it, thank you very much.

                  But, point taken.

                  And, i could have handled my response better to the namecalling. I should not have let them pull aggro like that.