Published on: August 21, 2025 02:44 pm IST
A Microsoft Software Engineer was one of the 18 people arrested during a protest against contracts with Israel at the Company’s Redmond Campus.
A Microsoft employee has been arrested at the company’s Redmond Headquarters during a protest against cloud contracts with Israel. For the protesters, led by No Ezor, the protesters rose on Wednesday, when the protesters established a “free area” and put red paint on a Microsoft sign. The Redmund police said that 18 people were arrested after allegedly blocked a pedestrian bridge and an attempt was made to build obstacles using stolen furniture.
Among those detained, Microsoft’s cloud and AI were a software engineer Anna Hotel. According to the organizers, former Microsoft employees Hosom Nasar and Vania Aggarwal were also arrested. The group said in a statement, “Those arrested include current and former Microsoft workers as well as members of the Seattle community.”
The protest movement is gaining momentum in recent months. The protesters first disrupted the 50th anniversary ceremony of Microsoft, where a former employee publicly called AI chief Mustafa Suleman a “war profiteering”. The group has interrupted Microsoft’s build conference several times, leading to reports that Microsoft has blocked the internal email with the term “Palestine”.
The latest protest follows an inquiry into The Guardian, +972 magazine and local calls, which has shown that the Israeli government is using Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure to store monitoring data from one million calls per hour by Palestinians.
Microsoft said it was reviewing an independent review of the allegations. A spokesperson of the company told Como News, “Microsoft will continue to work hard to maintain its human rights standards in the Middle East, while taking clear steps to damage illegal functions, which damages the property, disrupts business, or threatens others.”
