Two Microsoft engineers  fired after ruining 50th anniversary party

Last Friday (April 4), Microsoft held a celebratory event at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to mark its 50th anniversary. The event featured high-profile figures, including current CEO Satya Nadella, former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, and Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.

Ibtihal Abou El Saad, a Moroccan software engineer who had worked on Microsoft’s AI Platform team for 3.5 years, was at the presentation. As Suleyman was discussing updates to Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot, Abou El Saad approached the stage, shouting, “Mustafa, shame on you. 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 accused Suleyman of being a “war profiteer” and threw a keffiyeh scarf (a symbol of Palestinian solidarity) onto the stage before being escorted out. Suleyman responded calmly, saying, “Thank you for your protest, I hear you.”

Abou El Saad, a Harvard graduate who left Morocco in 2017 on a full scholarship to study Computer Science and Psychology, later told reporters, “What terrifies me most isn’t losing my job, it’s knowing my code might help kill children.” She followed up her protest with a mass email to Microsoft employees, explaining her actions: “I spoke up today because after learning that my org was powering the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice.” She highlighted Microsoft’s alleged suppression of dissent, claiming that Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim employees had been “silenced, intimidated, harassed, and doxxed” for raising similar concerns.

Later in the event, Vaniyal (sometimes spelled Vaniya) Agrawal, an Indian-American software engineer, also disrupted a panel featuring Nadella, Gates, and Ballmer: the first public gathering of all three Microsoft CEOs since 2014. Agrawal shouted, “Shame on you all. You’re all hypocrites. Fifty thousand Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating in their blood. Cut ties with Israel.” She, too, was escorted out.

Agrawal, who had been a Software Engineer II at Microsoft, sent a company-wide email afterward, announcing her resignation effective April 11, 2025. She wrote, “You may have seen me stand up earlier today to call out Satya during his speech at the Microsoft 50th anniversary. In good conscience, I could no longer be a part of the company whose work has enabled genocide by Israel.” She accused Microsoft of being a “digital weapons manufacturer” and violating its human rights commitments through its $133 million cloud and AI contract with Israel’s Ministry of Defense.

Microsoft’s Response and Firings

Both engineers lost access to their work accounts shortly after their protests, a sign that disciplinary action was imminent. On Monday, April 7, Microsoft officially terminated both employees, though their situations differed slightly:

Based at Microsoft’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto, Abou El Saad was fired immediately following a call with a human resources representative. Microsoft’s termination letter, as reported by the advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, accused her of “misconduct designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.” The company claimed she could have raised concerns confidentially with her manager or Global Employee Relations instead of disrupting the event.

Agrawal had already submitted her two-week notice on April 4, intending to leave on April 11. However, Microsoft accelerated her exit, emailing her on April 7 that her resignation was “immediately effective today,” effectively firing her five days early. The company cited her protest and subsequent email as justification.

Microsoft’s official statement on April 4 emphasized its commitment to hearing employee voices but stressed that such expressions should not disrupt business operations: “We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard. Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”

Background: Microsoft’s AI and Israel

The protests stem from Microsoft’s growing relationship with the Israeli military, particularly its provision of AI and cloud services via the Azure platform.

Key points include:

Contracts and Usage: An Associated Press investigation earlier in 2025 revealed that Microsoft and OpenAI AI models were used by the Israeli military to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon.

Post-October 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel’s use of Microsoft AI spiked nearly 200 times higher than the previous week, with data storage on Microsoft servers doubling to over 13.6 petabytes by July 2024.

Microsoft Israel, one of the company’s three global strategic centers, supports sensitive military projects, including Israel’s “target bank” and Palestinian population registry.

This wasn’t the first internal backlash. In February 2025, five Microsoft employees were removed from a meeting with Nadella for protesting these contracts. In 2019, employees opposed a $479 million HoloLens contract with the U.S. Army, showing a pattern of resistance to military entanglements.

Reactions and Fallout

Support for the Engineers: The firings sparked widespread attention. Hamas praised Abou El Saad’s “heroic stance,” urging others to follow her example. On X, users hailed her as a “woman of one million men” and a symbol of courage, with some calling for a Microsoft boycott.

Mixed Public Sentiment: Many called their actions “unprofessional,” arguing that workplace protests shouldn’t disrupt events. Microsoft’s defenders noted that the company operates within legal bounds and that employees have internal channels for grievances.

The company did not immediately comment further on the firings when asked on April 7.