{"id":125045,"date":"2025-10-16T04:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/125045\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T04:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:08:07","slug":"dublin-based-microsoft-engineer-quits-over-tech-giants-links-to-israeli-military-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/125045\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin-based Microsoft engineer quits over tech giant\u2019s links to Israeli military \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A software engineer has resigned from a senior role at Microsoft<\/a> in Dublin over the technology company\u2019s links to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

Zille Eizad worked with Microsoft for nine years, including more than seven years at its Irish headquarters in Leopardstown, South Dublin. <\/p>\n

In a video message sent to his colleagues on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Eizad encouraged staff to \u201cdemand accountability from Microsoft of how your work is being used\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease demand that Microsoft fully divests from Israeli military and government and suspends all contracts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he \u201cnever thought\u201d the company he worked for would be involved in what he alleged was \u201cempowering genocide and apartheid\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Eizad signed a petition of internal Microsoft staff last year objecting to the use of the company\u2019s technology by the Israel Defense Forces<\/a> (IDF).<\/p>\n

Shortly after Mr Eizad sent the video message about his resignation, a demonstration in support of his resignation was held outside Microsoft\u2019s office in Leopardstown by the pro-Palestine campaign group Your Tech Their Deaths.<\/p>\n

Jude Farrell, founder of the group, said people working in tech and beyond \u201chave to step up and make a stand about this\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about Palestine. If it can be done to Palestine, it can be done to any of us,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Mr Eizad, who regularly posts pro-Palestinian content online, is originally from Pakistan, but has lived in Ireland since 2018. He has previously lived in the US where he worked with Microsoft and Amazon<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In recent months, he has become increasingly disillusioned by Big Tech companies\u2019 links to Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said many of his colleagues would not be surprised by the reasons for his resignation. <\/p>\n

In August, an investigation<\/a> carried out by The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call revealed that Unit 8200, the Israeli military intelligence unit, was using Microsoft\u2019s Azure cloud services to store and process vast quantities of interceptions of phone communications of Palestinians in Gaza<\/a> and the occupied West Bank<\/a>. <\/p>\n

According to the investigation, the ability to collect and analyse these communications helped shape military operations in the region.<\/p>\n

Microsoft launched its own review in response to the investigation.<\/p>\n

On September 25th, the tech giant said it had terminated the Israeli military\u2019s access to certain subscriptions and services. <\/p>\n

In May, Microsoft said an earlier internal review \u201cfound no evidence to date\u201d that Azure or its artificial intelligence<\/a> products were \u201cused to target or harm people\u201d in Palestine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mr Eizad described Microsoft\u2019s response to The Guardian investigation as \u201cpathetic\u201d, claiming the company only ended this particular contract after coming under external pressure. He also questioned which other Microsoft services were still being used by the Israeli military. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported how the Israeli military\u2019s service agreements with Microsoft included at least 635 individual subscriptions. Mr Eizad said he believed many of these accounts remained active. <\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s links to the IDF has prompted a number of protests at the company\u2019s offices globally with some employees being fired.<\/p>\n

Mr Eizad said Microsoft employees in Ireland and abroad had repeatedly raised concerns about the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last year or so, a lot of Microsoft employees internally have raised concerns about Microsoft\u2019s dealings and contracts with the Israeli military and government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Eizad said these concerns had been largely ignored by management at the company. He said deciding to resign from a secure job was a \u201cvery difficult decision\u201d but he felt he had to take a stand.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times has contacted Microsoft for comment. <\/p>\n

In a company\u2019s statement last month, Brad Smith, Microsoft\u2019s vice-chair and president, said he appreciated that many staff \u201cwill have additional questions\u201d about the company\u2019s links to the Israeli military\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur review is ongoing. I\u2019ll share more information in the coming days and weeks, when it\u2019s appropriate to do so, including lessons learned from this review and how we will apply those lessons as we go forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A software engineer has resigned from a senior role at Microsoft in Dublin over the technology company\u2019s links…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[289,79,52,18,3761,19,17,71,6220,305,72,1918],"class_list":{"0":"post-125045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-gaza-strip","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-defence-forces","17":"tag-microsoft","18":"tag-palestine","19":"tag-west-bank"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}