Microsoft fired Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal on Monday after the two software engineers protested the tech company’s work with the Israeli military during events for the company’s 5oth anniversary on Friday, TheWrap has learned.
The Microsoft employee group No Azure for Apartheid, which advocates for the termination of all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government, commented on the terminations Monday, writing, “Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal have both been officially fired by Microsoft over call for disrupting the shameful Microsoft 50th anniversary.”
In her act of protest, Aboussad, who worked for Microsoft’s artificial intelligence division, walked onstage while Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was speaking at the tech company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters.