Microsoft sacks four employees over protest against firm’s connections to Israel

Tech giant Microsoft has dismissed four employees who protested against the company’s links to Israel. Two of the terminated staff had staged an encampment outside the office of the company’s president.

The protests followed an investigative report revealing that Israel is using Microsoft’s Azure software to record phone conversations of Palestinians.

The protesters were affiliated with the pro-Palestinian group No Azure for Apartheid. Among those dismissed were Anna Hattle and Riki Fameli, who said they were informed of their termination via voicemail. Nisreen Jaradat and Julius Shan were also among those fired.

Jaradat and Shan had previously joined an encampment at Microsoft headquarters, where they were arrested along with seven other former employees and pro-Palestinian supporters.

Microsoft described the demonstrations as a “serious policy breach” and said on-site protests posed a "significant threat to the company."

Read more: Microsoft under fire for blocking emails with ‘Palestine’ and ‘Gaza’

Company’s President Brad Smith, whose office was also targeted during the protests, stated, “We respect freedom of expression that everyone in this country enjoys, as long as it is exercised lawfully.”

In August, a report bt The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, revealed that Microsoft’s Azure technology was being used by the Israeli army to store large volumes of phone calls made by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Microsoft said it would conduct an internal review through the law firm Covington & Burling LLP.

The company has since faced mounting criticism from pro-Palestinian activists, who accuse it of enabling Israel’s surveillance infrastructure instead of divesting from the country over alleged war crimes in Gaza