Seven arrested after sit-in at Brad Smith's office over Gaza ties

Seven people, including current and former Microsoft employees, were arrested Tuesday after occupying the office of Microsoft president Brad Smith at the company’s Redmond, Washington campus, as protests over Microsoft’s ties to the Israel Defense Forces and its use of Azure in Gaza entered a new phase. The sit-in in Building 34 prompted a campus lockdown and was streamed on a live video platform, where protesters displayed banners, chanted slogans, and circulated a mock legal summons accusing Smith of crimes against humanity. The demonstration followed a string of escalating actions by No Azure for Apartheid, which has forced authorities to remove protesters from campuses and plazas in recent weeks.

The latest action centers on Smith’s office, where protesters staged a sit-in that included noisemakers attached to balloons and two banners bearing the group’s demands. One banner declared the building renamed to “Mai Ubeid Building,” while another reiterated calls for cutting ties with Israel, ending what the group terms genocide, paying reparations to Palestinians, and ending discrimination against workers. The event underscores a broader campaign by No Azure for Apartheid to...