WASHINGTON (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Two senior executives at American tech giant Microsoft were met with strong protest during an artificial intelligence conference in Seattle, as activists accused the company of supporting “the genocide being committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.”
The protest took place during the “Ethics & Technology 2025: Governing Artificial Intelligence” conference organized by Seattle University in Washington on Thursday. Activists from the group “No Azure for Apartheid”, along with members of several civil society organizations, disrupted speeches by Mike Jackson, Deputy General Manager of Microsoft’s Office of Artificial Intelligence, and Teresa Hutson, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Microsoft, by chanting slogans condemning the company’s collaboration with Israel.
No Azure for Apartheid is a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel group that opposes Israeli crimes and operates under the slogan:
We refuse to be complicit.
Join the growing No Tech for Apartheid movement and demand that Microsoft live up to its own purported ethical values—by ending its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide.
Join us, alongside students, teachers, activists, cultural workers, healthcare workers, and trade unions, alongside the International Court of Justice, alongside ordinary people in the streets and Palestinians worldwide, in building a new future where Palestine is free.
Protesters carried signs reading: “AI is irresponsible” and “End all contracts with Israel now.” They chanted slogans such as:
• “Microsoft, you can’t hide, you support genocide,” and
• “Divest now, we won’t stop, we won’t be silent!”
Despite attempts by organizers to silence the protesters, Jackson was forced to leave the stage within minutes, while the protests continued inside the hall. This led the conference administration to cancel the session and evacuate the venue.
The activists continued their demonstration in the building’s lobby, waving Palestinian flags and criticizing Seattle University for inviting Microsoft to the event. They stated that the university “should be ashamed” for hosting Microsoft representatives.
In mid-May, Microsoft issued a statement confirming that it provides cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli Army Ministry. However, the company claimed there was no evidence that these technologies were being used to harm civilians.
A January 2025 investigation by the Associated Press revealed that AI models developed by Microsoft and OpenAI were used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel—backed by the U.S.—has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza involving killings, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to stop. The genocide has resulted in approximately 186,000 people killed or wounded—most of them women and children—over 11,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and famine that has claimed the lives of many, including children.
