Microsoft employee bypasses ‘Palestine' block to email thousands of staff in protest
A Microsoft employee has managed to circumvent a block instituted earlier this week that limited mentions of 'Palestine,' 'Gaza,' and 'genocide' in email subject lines or in the body of a message. Nisreen Jaradat, a senior tech support engineer at Microsoft, emailed thousands of employees on Friday morning with the subject line 'You can't get rid of us.'
'As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company,' the note, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge, reads. 'I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees.'
It's not immediately clear how Jaradat got around the block. The email calls on Microsoft employees to sign a petition by the No Azure for Apartheid group, which urges Microsoft to end its contracts with the Israeli government. No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) is behind several high-profile protest actions in recent weeks, and Jaradat, a member, also encourages colleagues to join the group in different capacities. Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw directed The Verge to a previous statement it shared when the block was initially reported, saying that mass emailing colleagues 'about any topic not related to work is not appropriate,' and that the company has 'taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in.'
NOAA organizer Hossam Nasr called Microsoft's decision to block words 'particularly egregious.'
'Microsoft keeps telling its workers to go through the appropriate channels, and yet time and time again, those who speak up in 'appropriate channels' from viva engage posts to HR tickets are silenced or ignored,' Nasr said in part in a statement. 'What Microsoft is really telling us is: make it convenient for us to ignore you. Nisreen's email summarizes it: they cannot get rid of us. We will continue protesting in all ways big and small until our demands are met.'
Microsoft put this email block in place during the same week when current and former Microsoft employees, and hundreds of others, have been protesting against the company's contracts with the Israeli government during Microsoft's Build developer conference. Microsoft employee Joe Lopez, disrupted the opening keynote of Build on Monday, and then sent an email to thousands of Microsoft employees. The company fired him the same day.
A Palestinian tech worker then disrupted Microsoft's head of CoreAI during his presentation at Build on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, two former Microsoft employees disrupted a Build session, and a Microsoft executive inadvertently revealed internal messages regarding Walmart's use of AI moments later. There were also protests outside the conference venue on multiple days this week
This week's protests and emails come just days after Microsoft acknowledged its cloud and AI contracts with Israel, but claimed that an internal and external review had found 'no evidence' that its tools were used to 'target or harm people' in Gaza.
Yesterday, Microsoft chose to utterly and completely discriminate against an entire nation, an entire people, and an entire community by blocking all employees from sending any outbound email containing the words 'Palestine', 'Gaza', 'genocide', or 'apartheid'. Microsoft leaders justified this blatant censorship by saying it was to prevent you from receiving emails like the email that you are reading right now. Even though Microsoft SLT are aware that this 'short term solution' is easily bypassable, as this email clearly proves, Microsoft still doubled down, insisted on not rolling back the policy, and decided to continue targeting and repressing their Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied workers. They refused to revoke this censorship tactic, despite its potential illegality, dozens of employees expressing how racist of a decision it was, and even leaders admitting they see how it can be perceived as discriminatory and targeted. This further proves how little Microsoft values Palestinian lives and Palestinian suffering.
As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company. I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees. Had this useless and discriminatory policy been revoked, as I tried to request numerous times through so-called 'proper channels'[1][2], I would not be sending you all this email.
Despite claiming to have 'heard concerns from our employees and the public regarding Microsoft technologies used by the Israeli military to target civilians or cause harm in the conflict in Gaza' in a statement riddled with lies, admissions, and absurd justifications, Microsoft has shown that they are utterly uninterested in hearing what we have to say.
Microsoft claims that they 'provide many avenues for all voices to be heard'. However, whenever we try to discuss anything substantial about divesting from genocide in the 'approved channels', workers are retaliated against, doxxed, or silenced. Microsoft has deleted relevant employee questions in AMAs with executives and shut down Viva Engage posts in dedicated channels for asking SLT questions. Managers have warned outspoken directs to stay quiet and have even openly retaliated against them. When my community tries to flag issues and concerns to HR/GER/WIT, we have been met with racist outcomes with double standards. Throughout all this, Microsoft has sent a clear message to their employees: There are no proper channels at Microsoft to express your concerns, disagreements, or even questions about how Microsoft is using your labor to kill Palestinian babies.
Over this past week, Microsoft has shown their true face, brutalizing, detaining, firing, pepper spraying, threatening and insulting workers and former workers protesting at Microsoft Build. This email censorship is simply the latest example in a long list of recent extreme and outrageous escalations by Microsoft against my community. Enough is enough.
It has become clear that Microsoft will not listen to us out of the goodness of their hearts.
Microsoft will not change their stance just because it is the moral or even legal thing to do. Microsoft will only divest from genocide once it becomes more expensive for them to kill Palestinians than not. Right now, Microsoft makes a lot of money from genocide-profiteering, so we must make support for genocide even more expensive.
The situation in Palestine is more urgent by the minute. More and more Palestinians are being killed of starvation under the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)'s bombing campaign, invasion, and siege that has martyred an estimated 400,000 Palestinians. The IOF have kidnapped over 16,000 Palestinians and placed them in torture and rape camps. 1.93 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, and over 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank.
While a hostile work environment is difficult, it cannot compare to the horrors taking place in Palestine - horrors that we as Microsoft employees are complicit in. These futile attempts to silence our community, while painful at times, are evidence that the pressure we are applying is working. This is not the time for baby steps or gradual progress. Starving infants cannot wait any longer. We, as a company of over 200,000 employees, are providing the technological backbone for Israel's genocidal war machine in Palestinian. We, as employees of this company, have a responsibility to end our employer's complicity in this AI-assisted genocide! Now is the time to escalate against Microsoft and end this Microsoft-powered genocide!
I am calling on every employee of conscience to:
Sign No Azure for Apartheid's petition calling for a termination of all Microsoft contracts with the Israeli military and government: https://noaa.cc/petition
Strongly consider whether you want to stay in the company and fight for change from within, or if you want to leave and stop contributing labor to genocide.
If you choose to leave Microsoft to no longer be complicit in genocide, do not go quietly. The No Azure for Apartheid campaign is ready to help you make an impact on your way out for Palestine, and we will also do our best to provide you support before leaving. Reach out to us expressing your interest to leave here.
If you choose to stay, continue to fight from the inside to end Microsoft's, and your own, complicity in war crimes, join the No Azure for Apartheid campaign. If you are worried about being public with your affiliation, rest assured that as a worker-led grassroots movement, we have members with all levels of anonymity and risk level. Some of our members are publicly visible and will even publicly confront our war-criminal executives, such as Satya Nadella, Mustafa Suleyman, and Jay Parikh at major Microsoft events like the 50th Anniversary celebration and Microsoft Build. Other members choose to stay completely anonymous and still contribute to the critical work of the campaign. There is room for everyone: https://noaa.cc/join
While I do understand that as Microsoft employees, we cannot fully boycott Microsoft, most of us can focus on the priority targets set by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, which recently set Microsoft as a priority target. The main target of the boycott is Microsoft Gaming, especially X-Box. We can also encourage our friends and family to boycott Microsoft where possible.
To Microsoft Senior Leadership team specifically:You cannot silence Palestine.You cannot silence Gaza.You cannot hide your involvement in genocide and apartheid.
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