Satya Nadella’s speech at Build event disrupted as staffer raises ‘Free Palestine’ slogan

For the second time this year, a major Microsoft event with CEO Satya Nadella on stage was disrupted on Monday (May 19) by slogans against Israel's war in Gaza raised by none other than one of the company’s employees.

As Nadella was addressing the gathering at the company’s Build developer conference in Seattle, Joe Lopez, a firmware engineer for the tech giant, suddenly leapt up on his chair and started chanting slogans.

Also Read: Microsoft says it provided AI to Israeli military for war

‘Killing Palestinians’

Accusing Microsoft of providing technological support to Israel in its ongoing war in Gaza, Lopez threw pointed questions at Nadella. Media reports quoted him as asking Nadella to show how his organisation was killing Palestinians and how the company’s software was aiding alleged war crimes by Israel.

“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?” the Indian Express quoted Lopez as saying. However, his protest was cut short as security personnel swiftly escorted him out of the venue.

As security personnel were escorting Lopez out, another techie, a former Google employee, stood up and started raising the 'Free Palestine' slogan. “Free Palestine, I’m a former Google worker and all tech workers…,” she said before being stopped by security personnel.

Also Read: Indian-origin techie Vaniya Agrawal publicly slams Gates, Nadella over AI use in Gaza

‘Genocide in Gaza’

After his protest, Lopez, in an email to Microsoft, explained his actions. Describing the ongoing war in Gaza as a “genocide”, Lopez accused Microsoft of facilitating “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, losing their lives and their homes while they plead for the rest of the world to pay attention and act,” Lopez wrote in the email as quoted by The Verge.

“Microsoft continues to facilitate Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” wrote Lopez, adding that he would no longer remain silent.

Also Read: Microsoft to cut 3 pc of workforce as part of ‘broad organisational change’

Earlier incidents

Lopez also mentioned a similar recent incident which took place in April when two Microsoft employees, Ibtihal and Vaniya, were fired by the company following their protest over the Palestine issue at the 50th anniversary celebration of the organisation.

The latest protest comes days after Microsoft, in a blog post, stated that it had conducted an “internal review” into the issue in collaboration with an independent third-party firm. It further stated that the investigation 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.”