Late last night, it emerged that Microsoft has begun banning certain keywords from internal emails, relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Microsoft has faced a sprint of employee protest action owing to Microsoft’s dealings with the Israeli government, notably for Azure installations, AI processing, and other technologies. Microsoft employees publicly interrupted CEO Satya Nadella during speeches, with the latest interruptions taking place at Build 2025.
The No Azure for Apartheid movement is part of a wider organization between big tech employees to highlight the work their parent companies are doing with the Israeli government, whose war against the Gaza strip has claimed tens of thousands of lives, and displaced hundreds of thousands more. As thousands of adults and children face starvation, Israel is has been accused by organizations like the UN and ICC of deliberately blocking aid, as it seeks to further its stated goal of eliminating the terrorist organization Hamas — increasingly, critics say that Israel’s claims are merely a smokescreen for committing genocide.
Signed by over 1500 Microsoft employees, No Azure for Apartheid’s petition reads, “As of the time of writing, Israel has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, most of whom are children and women. Israel has killed more aid workers than in any single conflict in history, and more journalists than killed by any army in a single year. Israel has bombed schools, hospitals, places of worship, refugee camps, and destroyed all aspects of civilian life in the Gaza Strip.”
Verified by multiple sources, a few days ago an unknown Microsoft engineer sent the below internal email to a Microsoft mailbox that hits many thousands of email addresses within the company. The engineer asks why certain Microsoft leaders like President Brad Smith and CEO Satya Nadella have been silent on the conflict. They raise the question, “is my work killing kids?” noting the Israeli Defence Force’s potential use of Microsoft technologies.
The email in question may be what led to keywords like “Genocide,” “Palestine,” and “Gaza” being banned from internal comms.
Part of the email is as follows.
Fellow Microsoft workers and Microsoft leadership,
By now you may have seen or heard of my disruption at the Microsoft Build keynote this morning.
I have been working as a firmware engineer under Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure (AHSI) for the past 4 years. As a Microsoft worker – while I’ve had positive experiences here, working and learning with many incredible people -I can no longer stand by in silence as Microsoft continues to facilitate Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
Like many of you, I have been watching the ongoing genocide in Gaza in horror. I have been shocked by the silence, inaction, and callousness of world leaders as Palestinian people are suffering.
My disillusionment with Microsoft
Then I came across the No Azure for Apartheid movement, whose members have been organizing, taking action, and speaking out no matter the cost. I saw Ibtihal and Vaniya’s disruption of Microsoft’s 50th anniversary on April 4 and was shocked to hear the words coming from their mouths. Microsoft is killing kids? Is my work killing kids?
I was also shocked by the silence of our leadership. By the silence of Mustafa Suleyman, Brad Smith, Kevin Scott, Scott Guthrie, and Satya Nadella. “Why aren’t they responding”? I asked myself.
“If we are truly not guilty, shouldn’t they deny these horrible accusations?”
I started to look deeper. I read the articles, saw the evidence, heard the testimonies of employees who were horrified to find out that the technology that we are building is being used by Israel in their mission to erase the Palestinian people.
A switch had been flipped. Presented with this information, I went into work everyday plagued by thoughts of the suffering that is being inflicted by a United States-Israeli war machine that runs on Azure. I joined Microsoft because I truly believed that it was the “more ethical big tech”. I thought that the work that I was doing was empowering people, not causing harm.
Microsoft’s admission of complicity
Microsoft recently uploaded a blog post, marking its first official response to the concerns that many have been shouting into their ears for years. Their statement falls far short of what we are demanding. Non-transparent audits into our cloud operations in Israel (conducted by no other than Microsoft itself and an unnamed external entity) that declare no wrongdoing by the company do not give me any sense of relief. In fact, this response has further compelled me to speak out. Microsoft openly admitted to allowing the Israel Ministry of Defense “special access to our technologies beyond the terms of our commercial agreements”. Do you really believe that this “special access” was allowed only once? What sort “special access” do they really need? And what are they doing with it?
Leadership rejects our claims that Azure technology is being used to target or harm civilians in Gaza. Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is a bold-faced lie. Every byte of data that is stored on the cloud (much of it likely containing data obtained by illegal mass surveillance) can and will be used as justification to level cities and exterminate Palestinians. We don’t need an internal audit to know that a top Azure customer is committing crimes against humanity. We see it live on the internet every day.
As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel. If leadership continues to ignore this demand, I promise that it won’t go unnoticed. The world has already woken up to our complicity and is turning against us. The boycotts will increase and our image will continue to spiral into disrepair.
Call to action
My future children will one day ask me what I did for the Palestinian people as they were suffering and pleading for our help. I hope they will forgive me for my previous inaction. Many of you have children who may be asking you that question today. What will you tell them?
Imagine your home being demolished as soldiers stand by cheering. Your friends and family members dismembered by bombs that drop daily in your neighborhood. Every member of your community on the brink of death due to starvation. Strangers staking claims to your home, awaiting your death.
As Israel continues its deadly blockade of Gaza, and Netanyahu continues to assert that he will not rest until Gaza is fully occupied, we know that this situation is beyond dire. I wouldn’t have risked my career and my livelihood if I didn’t believe that to the core of my being. It’s terrifying to speak up, especially right now.
Microsoft has in the past encouraged employees to become activists for things like climate concerns, civil rights, LGBT rights, and other causes. So, it’s hardly a surprise then that Microsoft staffers (or indeed anyone with a moral compass) would feel concerned about indirect technological complicity with a potential active genocide.
For its part, Microsoft has claimed via “internal review” that its technologies have not be used to target civilians in the Gaza strip, while acknowledging it doesn’t have “visibility” on how customers may use their technologies on private servers — like those potentially used by the military.
