Pro-Palestine protestors disrupted Microsoft’s Build developer conference for the second day in a row. A day after a Microsoft employee interrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote address, a tech worker staged a similar protest while Jay Parikh was onstage.
Jay Parikh serves as Executive Vice President of Microsoft CoreAI. He was speaking on day 2 of the Build conference in Seattle when a protestor linked to No Azure for Apartheid interrupted his speech.
The second protest
“Jay! My people are suffering!” the unnamed tech worker yelled. “Cut ties! No Azure for apartheid! Free, free Palestine!”
He was quickly escorted out by security personnel present at the scene. A video of his disruptive protest was shared by No Azure for Apartheid on Instagram.
“Today's disruption - organized by No Azure for Apartheid - follows yesterday's disruptions by Joe Lopez, a Microsoft worker with our No Azure for Apartheid campaign,” the group said.
Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the protest group, confirmed to The Verge that they helped the tech worker. Nasr refused to name the protestor, only identifying him as a “Palestinian tech worker”.
{{/usCountry}}Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the protest group, confirmed to The Verge that they helped the tech worker. Nasr refused to name the protestor, only identifying him as a “Palestinian tech worker”.
{{/usCountry}}No Azure for Apartheid has helped disrupt several Microsoft events in the recent past - including Nadella’s keynote speech a day earlier. Joe Lopez disrupted the company’s opening keynote at Build while Nadella was speaking onstage. He too was quickly escorted out, but not before he managed to yell, ““Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians. How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and service created by Microsoft. It has faced criticism from some Palestine protestors and human rights advocates due to its contracts with the Israeli government and military.
Just weeks ago, Microsoft fired two employees who staged protests at the company’s 50th anniversary event.