On Tuesday, a coalition of current and former Microsoft employees, along with local community members, staged a takeover of a public plaza on Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, campus, initiating a protest titled “No Azure for Apartheid.” The demonstrators declared the site a “Liberated Zone,” renaming it from East Campus Plaza to “The Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza.” This action was publicly shared through a press release, noting that approximately 50 individuals participated at the commencement of the protest.
Participants erected tents and exhibited artistic tributes to the casualties in Gaza, featuring shrouds and a prominent sign stating “Stop Starving Gaza.” The group also set up a negotiating table with an invitation for Microsoft executives to “come to the table” and reconsider the firm’s collaborations with the Israeli military.
The activists expressed their intent to maintain their presence at the plaza until they are physically removed. Microsoft had not provided a comment by the time of this report.
This protest is part of an ongoing series of significant demonstrations directed at Microsoft and its leadership regarding the company’s involvement with Israel. During Microsoft’s 50th anniversary celebration in April, a software engineer from the AI division interrupted a speech by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, demanding an end to the use of Microsoft’s AI technologies by the Israeli military. Later that same day, another employee disrupted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s address with similar grievances, leading to both engineers being terminated shortly afterward. Reports indicated that in the following month, Microsoft had blocked certain keywords related to Palestine from Microsoft Outlook emails.
A statement from No Azure for Apartheid, associated with the No Tech for Apartheid coalition, described the demonstration as the “largest escalation targeting Microsoft” to date. This statement referenced a recent investigation undertaken by The Guardian in collaboration with +972 Magazine and Local Call, which indicated that the Israeli government sought to archive recordings and data from up to “a million calls each hour” made by Palestinians, with these communications influencing military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
In conjunction with the protest, the activists circulated a document titled “We will not be cogs in the Israeli genocidal machine: a call for a Worker Intifada.” Authored by “Microsoft workers, former workers, and community members of conscience,” the document encourages Microsoft to sever its ties with Israel. Additionally, it advocates for “an End to the Genocide and Forced Starvation,” reparations for Palestinians, and a commitment to ending discrimination against Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and pro-Palestine workers within Microsoft.
The call also urges Microsoft employees to engage in various forms of protest, such as speaking out, walking out, and striking. Furthermore, it encourages employees across all companies to demand that their organizations divest from any “genocidal partnerships,” particularly relating to Israel or Microsoft. The document provides an email contact for Microsoft executives who wish to engage in negotiations, along with an invitation to the negotiating table established in the plaza.
