Ibtihal Abou El Saad: The Voice of Conscience Inside Microsoft

This is Ibtihal Abou El Saad, a young Moroccan woman, Harvard graduate, and programmer at Microsoft.

On the 50th anniversary of the company’s founding, Ibtihal took to the stage during the official ceremony and directly confronted Mustafa Suleyman — Microsoft’s Chief AI Officer of Arab descent — accusing him of complicity in the bloodshed.

She also accused Microsoft’s leadership as a whole of enabling Israeli war crimes through its provision of technology, servers, and Azure services to the Israeli military, which have been used in the execution of acts of genocide against Palestinians for over a year and a half.

Ibtihal was not just an angry employee. She stood as a living embodiment of moral conscience within one of the largest tech companies in the world.

Her message was clear:

“We cannot build technology that’s used to kill innocent people and then remain silent. It’s time to take a stand.”

Full Statement by Ibtihal

Hello everyone,

As some of you may have just seen on the livestream or in person, I interrupted the speech by Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of AI at Microsoft, during the highly anticipated 50th Anniversary Celebration. I want to explain why I did that.

My name is Ibtihal, and I’ve worked as a software engineer on the AI Platform team at Microsoft for three and a half years. I decided to speak up today because after learning that my team’s work was helping enable a genocide against my people in Palestine, I felt I had no ethical choice but to act. This became especially urgent after witnessing how Microsoft has tried to suppress and silence dissent from employees who raised concerns.

Over the past year and a half, our Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim communities at Microsoft have been marginalized, threatened, harassed, and smeared, with no meaningful action from the company. Some of us tried to speak up — and at best, we were ignored. At worst, two employees were fired simply for organizing a solidarity event. I was left with no other way to make our voices heard.We Are Witnessing a Genocide

Over the past year and a half, I have witnessed the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel. I’ve seen unimaginable suffering and mass violations of human rights — from relentless bombings, the targeting of hospitals and schools, to a system of apartheid condemned by countless international bodies like the UN, the ICC, the ICJ, and major human rights organizations.

The images of ash-covered children, grieving parents, and entire communities destroyed have left me mentally shattered.

Israel has now resumed its large-scale attacks on Gaza. So far, more than 300,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in less than 18 months. Just a few days ago, reports surfaced that Israeli forces executed fifteen medics and rescue workers “one by one” before burying them in sand — a war crime added to a growing list.

At the same time, our work in so-called “responsible AI” is being used to facilitate surveillance and killing. The UN and ICJ have clearly stated this is genocide, and the ICC has even issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.We Are Complicit

When I joined the AI Platform team, I was excited to build tools that could serve humanity — accessibility tech, translation services, and products meant to “empower every person and organization to achieve more.” I never imagined Microsoft would sell my work to the Israeli military to spy on and kill journalists, doctors, aid workers, and civilians.

If I had known my work on speech transcription tech would be used to eavesdrop on calls and target Palestinians, I would’ve never joined this team.

According to the Associated Press, Microsoft holds a $133 million contract with Israel’s Ministry of Defense.

The Israeli military’s use of Microsoft AI has massively expanded. The volume of data stored on Microsoft servers has surged to 13.6 petabytes — all used to fuel a surveillance machine. Microsoft Azure is helping collect massive intelligence, including phone calls, texts, and voice messages, according to an Israeli intelligence officer.

Is this the legacy we want to leave behind? Can we truly be proud of building AI weapons that murder the innocent?A Call to Action

Silence is complicity. But even small actions can make a difference.
As employees of this company, we must raise our voices and demand that Microsoft stop selling technology to the Israeli military.

If you care about the ethics of your work, I urge you to take action:Sign the “No Tech for Apartheid” petition — we refuse to write code that kills.Start conversations with your colleagues — many may simply not be aware.Know that Microsoft’s human rights policy protects you from retaliation when raising concerns about human rights abuses.

I hope our collective voices will inspire our AI leaders to correct course — and not leave behind a legacy drenched in blood.

Sincerely,A concerned Microsoft employee

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