Microsoft Engineer Quits After 13 Years, Blasts Company For Enabling 'Worst Atrocities Of Our Time' In Gaza

A veteran Microsoft engineer has dramatically exited the company after more than a decade, firing off a blistering resignation email to thousands of colleagues that accuses the tech giant of enabling 'the worst atrocities of our time' through its cloud services contracts with the Israeli military.

Scott Sutfin-Glowski, a principal software engineer who spent 13 years at Microsoft, announced his departure, framing it as a moral stand against the firm's ongoing ties to Israel's defense forces amid the Gaza conflict. In the email, he wrote, "I can no longer accept enabling what may be the worst atrocities of our time," opting to resign rather than risk termination for voicing dissent.

Sutfin-Glowski's move escalates simmering internal unrest at Microsoft, where employee protests over the company's Azure cloud platform have intensified since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war. He pointed to a February Associated Press report revealing that Israel's military holds at least 635 active Microsoft subscriptions, criticising the elimination of internal channels for raising ethical concerns about these deals.

Echoes of Broader Dissent and Firings

This isn't an isolated cry. Microsoft has fired five employees in recent months for Gaza-related demonstrations, including four who occupied President Brad Smith's office in August to demand an end to the contracts. During an internal meeting that month, Smith defended the terminations, stating: "Anybody who is smart enough to get a job at Microsoft is smart enough to know that you don't get to storm in and break into buildings and occupy other people's offices and keep your job at Microsoft."

The flashpoint was an August Guardian exposé alleging that Israel's elite Unit 8200 intelligence arm used Azure to surveil "a million calls an hour" from Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. In response, Microsoft in September halted cloud storage and AI services to that unit after confirming parts of the report, a decision President Smith described as blocking access following an investigation. However, an Israeli security official told CNN the cuts caused "no damage" to IDF operations, while sources indicated Unit 8200 swiftly shifted data to Amazon Web Services.

Activists from the No Azure for Apartheid campaign hailed the move as a "significant and unprecedented win" but decried it as too narrow, with most contracts intact after over a year of pressure. On Thursday, protesters returned to Microsoft's Redmond headquarters with banners proclaiming "WE CALL BULLSHIT. CUT ALL TIES WITH ISRAEL NOW" and "Microsoft Build KILLS," tying the tech to imagery of warplanes and missiles. More than 1,500 employees have signed petitions urging a Gaza ceasefire.