Protests that are increasing. As reported by The Verge, a Pro-Palestine demonstration took place in the heart of the Microsoft campus this Tuesday, August 19. The group at the origin of this event, “there is no blue for apartheid,” denounces the collaboration between Microsoft and the Israeli army.
The collective consists of current and previous employees of Microsoft and pro-palestinian protesters of Seattle. They settled in the central square of the company’s headquarters in Redmond, in the state of Washington. The collective renamed the place “The place of the Palestinian Martiros”.
“Stop hungry for gaza”
Several tents have been deployed in this “released area.” You could also see a giant plaque in which it was written “stop showing Gaza.” The Instagram collective account also explains that it has established a negotiation table, encouraging the company’s managers to come and discuss. The organizers say they could interact with other employees on the defended cause.
Because if there are many people to convince the collective, they are the Microsoft employees. “Not Azure For Aectheid” wants to denounce the use of technologies developed by the department of Microsoft Azure, within the Israeli army, which accuse of the genocide in Gaza. Microsoft Azure is remarkably in charge of the development of cloud computing solutions, a technology that allows you to house online data. But according to The guardianThis division would have provided the Israeli army to monitor the Palestinian population.
The mobilization will eventually dissolve at night. Microsoft did not express itself in the event. For their part, the organizers plan to continue proclaiming their claims as indicated in their Instagram account.
Invective that multiply
Microsoft has faced several interventions of this type for a few months. Employees are increasing pro-palestinian positions. On April 4, 2025, on the occasion of Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, two company employees interrupted talking about the three CEO, Bill Gates, Satya Nadella and Steve Ballmer. One of them had stated in particular: “50,000 Palestinians from Gaza were killed thanks to Microsoft’s technology (…) shame to all who celebrate their blood. They cut links with Israel.”
The same stage in May 2025, an employee of the firm interrupted Satya Nadella during the annual Microsoft conference dedicated to developers. He had shouted: “Satya! And if you showed how Microsoft kills the Palestinians? What if you show how Israeli war crimes are fed by Azure? As a Microsoft employee, I refuse to be an accomplice of this genocide.”
A petition will even shoot in the group, collecting almost 2,000 employee signatures so that your company stops providing Azure services against what they describe as “apartheid.”
After these invective, Microsoft decided to ban the words “Palestine”, “Gaza” and “genocide” of all its emails. But that will not discourage certain employees. On August 14, it was the French study Arkane (owned by the Microsoft group and at the origin of the dishonored video game series) that, in turn, denounced this collaboration with the Israeli army.
Source: BFM TV
