- Thursday, April 17, 2025
Ibtihal Abousaad and Vaniya Agarwal had interrupted the technology giant’s 50th anniversary event over its ties with Israel
By: India Weekly
MICROSOFT has fired two of its women employees, Ibtihal Abousaad and Vaniya Agarwal, for interrupting the company’s 50th anniversary celebration in Redmond, Washington on Friday (4), over the firm’s ties with Israel.
In its termination letter, Microsoft told Aboussad she could have raised her concerns confidentially to a manager, but chose to interrupt the event.
Agrawal, a software engineer in the company’s artificial intelligence division, had already given her two weeks notice and was preparing to leave the company on April 11.
But on Monday (7) she was told that the company has decided to release her immediately.
On Friday, when Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman began his address at an event, Aboussad arose and shouted, “You are a war profiteer. Stop using AI for genocide.”
Suleyman responded by saying: “I hear your protest, thank you.” The protesting employee was then escorted away.
There were media reports earlier that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI were used as part of an Israeli military programme to select bombing targets during its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Vaniya interrupted a panel discussion in which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates were taking part.
She claimed that “50,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Microsoft technology.”
Later in an email Aboussad said there was “no other way to make our voices heard” because the company had allegedly suppressed dissent on the issue.
“Microsoft cloud and AI enabled the Israeli military to be more lethal and destructive in Gaza than they otherwise could,” she claimed.
Argawal claimed in her email that Microsoft was complicit in Israel’s genocide, and by working for the company, employees were also complicit.
Microsoft said it provided many avenues for all voices to be heard in a way that does not cause business interruption.
Aboussad later claimed that she and Agarwal lost access to their work accounts after the protest.
