Nearly two dozen anti-Israel agitators were arrested after establishing an encampment for the second consecutive day at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters, featuring a display honoring Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists.
The agitators, who dumped paint on a Microsoft sign and logo, had promised to remain until they were forced to leave. Redmond Police Department spokeswoman Jill Green told the Washington Free Beacon that 18 individuals were arrested for various charges.
“Officers initially attempted to trespass the protesters, but they resisted and became aggressive. A few protesters had poured paint over the Microsoft sign and on the ground. Others had blocked a pedestrian bridge and were using stolen tables and chairs from vendors to form a barrier,” Green said. “Officers took 18 into custody for multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and obstruction. No injuries were reported,” she added.
During Tuesday’s encampment, protesters made the same commitment—until police broke up the unrest at Microsoft’s request. No arrests were made on Tuesday, and the tech giant wouldn’t say if any employees faced discipline.
The protests, which attracted dozens of agitators, were organized by No Azure For Apartheid (NAA), a group of Microsoft employees seeking to force the company to sever its ties with Israel, demand it pay Palestinians reparations, and “escalate to force an end to this genocide powered by Microsoft technology.” The group launched in May 2024 as an offshoot of No Tech for Apartheid, an anti-Israel coalition of Google and Amazon employees.
While announcing Wednesday’s arrests on Instagram, NAA called on its followers to donate to the Northwest Community Bail Fund, a nonprofit that has received funding from the Tides Center—a George Soros-funded dark money network. According to financial disclosures reviewed by the Free Beacon, the center gave nearly $250,000 to the bail fund in 2021 and approximately $50,000 in 2022.
Anti-Israel activists adorned the occupied plaza “with various artistic expressions, including shrouds to symbolize the martyrs of Gaza,” according to the group. One display honored several terrorists, including PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani, as well as Anas Al-Sharif and Hossam Shabat, Hamas militants who have been portrayed as Al Jazeera journalists.
The display also showcased Hassan Esliyeh, a Hamas operative and photographer who infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7; Bassel al-Araj, a Palestinian terrorist killed in a 2017 shootout with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF); Mustafa Taleb and Asmaa Daraghmeh, 17-year-olds killed after attacking Israeli soldiers; and Wafa Jarrar, wife of a Hamas leader and 2021 Hamas election candidate.
“Today, we choose to revolt; we choose to rise up; we choose to disobey; and we choose to carry forward the torch of the intifada until every single inch of Palestine is liberated,” read a statement from the group. “Make no mistake, our actions will continue as long as Microsoft is invested in the economy of occupation and genocide, in any capacity! We will make it costly to continue to do business with the murderous Zionist regime.”
Tuesday’s protest was short-lived. Local police threatened to arrest the agitators, prompting them to dismantle their setup and march off of Microsoft’s campus after roughly an hour. Green told the Free Beacon that it had “responded to a trespassing request from Microsoft regarding protesters on their campus.”
“Officers asked the protesters to leave the premises, and they eventually complied,” she said. “No arrests were made.”
When asked about potential disciplinary action for participating employees, such as Julius Shan, who sent a company-wide email announcing Tuesday’s encampment, a Microsoft spokeswoman told the Free Beacon that “the group was asked to leave, and they left,” but didn’t provide further details.
She also pointed to a blog post noting that an internal review “found no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza.” It also said it hired the law firm Covington and Burling to conduct further review.
Even after Wednesday’s arrests, Microsoft wouldn’t say if anyone would be disciplined. The same Microsoft spokeswoman said Wednesday’s agitators “engaged in vandalism and property damage” and “disrupted, harassed, and took tables and tents from local small businesses at a lunchtime farmer’s market for employees.”
“Microsoft will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others,” the spokeswoman said.
Microsoft has, however, disciplined employees for anti-Israel disruptions in the past. In May, the company suspended Nisreen Jaradat after the senior tech support engineer sent a company-wide email with NAA’s petition demanding Microsoft sever ties with the Israeli military, urging those who quit over those ties to “not go quietly,” and calling on employees who stay to boycott “Microsoft Gaming, especially X-Box.”
In a speech delivered during Tuesday’s protest, Jaradat quoted Al-Sharif, urging bystanders “not to let chains silence [us], nor borders restrain [us].”
“Microsoft is the most complicit digital arms manufacturer in Israel’s genocide of Gaza, and Microsoft workers are refusing to contribute even a second more of our labor to the Holocaust of our time,” she said.
Other employees have faced harsher punishment. Microsoft terminated Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal after they disrupted speeches during the tech company’s 50th birthday celebration in April.
During AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s address, Aboussad shouted “shame on you,” called him a “war profiteer,” and accused Microsoft of powering genocide in Gaza. Afterward, Aboussad sent a link to an NAA petition in an email to executives. Microsoft fired Aboussad in response, writing that her email offered “an admission that you deliberately and willfully engaged in your earlier misconduct” and served as a way “to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event,” according to CNBC.
Agrawal similarly disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s speech and sent a follow-up email to executives calling Microsoft and its employees complicit in “apartheid, and genocide.” In a statement to NBC News, a company spokesperson said, “We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” but “we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption.”
Microsoft also fired NAA member and software engineer Joe Lopez after he disrupted Nadella’s speech at a separate event. He shouted, “How about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show the Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” Following his disruption, Lopez sent a company-wide email calling on Microsoft employees and executives to join NAA and circulated a similar petition.
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