Microsoft 50th Anniversary event marred by pro-Palestine protests
Microsoft employees Friday April 04, 2025 disrupted the company’s event organized to commemorate its 50th anniversary
Redmond (Washington): Microsoft employees Friday April 04, 2025 disrupted the company’s event organized to commemorate its 50th anniversary.
The tech giant’s employees were protesting Microsoft’s technology support extended to Israel during its ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli occupation forces have killed over 61,000 – majority of them women and children, with thousands others under rubble and presumed dead, since October 07, 2023 in response to 1,139 killed during Hamas’ Operation al Aqsa Flood.
In the latest military offensive started after March 18, 2025, the Israeli occupation forces are killing or injuring 100 children every day, according to the United Nations.
At least 27 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in northern Gaza that was serving as a shelter for displaced families on Thursday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
“You have blood on your hand”
“Mustafa, shame on you,” a Microsoft employee, identified as Ibtihal Aboussad, was seen shouting in videos that surfaced on social media. She walked toward the stage and Suleyman paused his speech.
“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region,” she stridently said.
“Stop using AI for genocide,” she said.
Watch Video
A pro-Palestinian protest by two Microsoft employees, Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration that included Bill Gates. Aboussad shouted: “Shame on you. You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI… pic.twitter.com/pgB47z4l1J
— Rakesh Krishnan Simha (@ByRakeshSimha) April 5, 2025
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer were in the audience when the protest began.
"Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI Chief, said as Aboussad continued shouting, “he and all of Microsoft had blood on their hands.”
Before being escorted out of the event, she threw a keffiyeh scarf onto the stage, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinians.
Another Protest
Another protesting Microsoft employee, identified as Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted another part of the company's 50th anniversary celebration during which Bill Gates, Ballmer and current CEO Satya Nadella were on stage, the first public gathering since 2014 of the three men who have been Microsoft's CEO.
Agrawal also mentioned the No Azure for Apartheid group, started among Microsoft employees to call on the company to end "direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide."
At least one person in the room booed her, and videos taken from inside the event show Gates chuckling following the interruption, saying, "alright" before returning to the discussion that was underway.
Apart from the protests inside the event, a larger rally organised by the same No Azure for Apartheid group was being staged outside.
Protest letter: 'I’ve decided to leave Microsoft'.
An investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year revealed that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI were used as part of an Israeli military programme to select bombing targets during the recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
The report cited an incident in 2023, when an Israeli airstrike mistakenly targeted a vehicle carrying a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
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