Microsoft said Thursday it fired two employees after an anti-Israel group broke into President Brad Smith’s office to protest the software firm’s alleged ties to the war in Gaza.
A group of seven current and former staffers on Tuesday burst into Smith’s office, located in Redmond, Wash., and demanded the company end its support of Israel – following reports that its software was used by the military as part of its invasion of Gaza.
In an Instagram post, No Azure for Apartheid, which organized the protest, said Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle had been fired.
“Two employees were terminated today following serious breaches of company policies and our code of conduct,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, adding that there were illegal break-ins at executive offices.
“These incidents are inconsistent with the expectations we maintain for our employees.”
Microsoft added that it is continuing to investigate the incident.
Fameli, a Brown University alum, worked as a software engineer for Microsoft for the past two years since graduating college, according to his LinkedIn. Hattle had been a software engineer at the company for five years, according to No Azure for Apartheid.
Smith claimed that the protesters had blocked people from entering the office, planted phones as listening devices and refused to leave unless cops intervened.
On its website, No Azure for Apartheid said it’s “a movement of Microsoft workers demanding that Microsoft end its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide.”
Backlash against Microsoft mounted after The Guardian reported earlier this month that the Israeli military has used the company’s Azure cloud platform to store phone calls of Palestinians.
Microsoft said it has authorized a third-party investigation into whether its technology has been used for surveillance.
Smith vowed that the company would “investigate and get to the truth” of how its services are being used.
No Azure led protests at the company’s campus last week, as well, leading to the arrests of 20 individuals – 16 of whom never worked at Microsoft, Smith said.
The group also orchestrated protests at Microsoft’s Build developer conference and a celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary.
A Microsoft director has asked the FBI to monitor the protests, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this week.
Google axed 28 employees last year after a similar series of protests over the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government and military for its cloud and AI services.
Some of those staffers had busted into the office of Thomas Kurian, chief executive of Google’s cloud unit.
