REDMOND, WA: On Wednesday, Aug. 20, Redmond PD officers violently dismantled the Palestine encampment at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters set up by current and former tech workers and community members with the No Azure for Apartheid Coalition. 20 coalition members were arrested.
Police have claimed that protestors became “aggressive” before arrests commenced, and a spokesperson for Microsoft told Fox13 that protestors “harassed” others in the plaza and said that the company would “[take] clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business, or that threaten and harm others.” TRNN editor-in-chief Maximillian Alvarez was one of the only journalists on the ground: “I was standing and filming 10 feet away the entire time, and I saw nothing of the sort,” Alvarez says. “The protestors weren’t threatening or harming anyone.” This video shows Alvarez’s uninterrupted, 37-minute shot documenting the moments before, during, and after police dismantled the encampment. Officers begin dismantling the encampment and making arrests around 14:30 in the video.
Follow Alvarez and TRNN on Instagram and TikTok for more updates as this story unfolds.
BACKGROUND:
Current and former tech workers at Microsoft joined with community supporters to establish an encampment at Microsoft HQ in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and in protest of Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill, and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians. Just before 12:30PM PT on Tuesday, Aug. 19, members of the No Azure for Apartheid coalition walked out to Microsoft’s East Campus Plaza to establish their “liberated zone,” renaming the plaza “The Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza.”
As the No Azure for Apartheid coalition stated in a press release on Tuesday,
This action is in response to Microsoft’s ongoing partnership with the Israeli military and the recent news of Microsoft technology being used to surveil, starve and kill Palestinians. This action marks the biggest escalation targeting Microsoft following multiple investigations that exposed the company’s deep ties to the Israeli military. Recent reporting by the Guardian and +972 News revealed Microsoft cloud storage services are being used to surveil Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by collecting and storing recordings of millions of mobile phone calls and texts made each day by Palestinians. The investigations included testimonies of how the surveillance data is being used to directly target Palestinians in Gaza and even retroactively justify extrajudicial killings in the West Bank.
(“Microsoft has launched an ‘urgent’ external inquiry into allegations Israel’s military surveillance agency has used the company’s technology to facilitate the mass surveillance of Palestinians,” the Guardian reports.)
After police and company security dispersed the encampment on Tuesday, threatening all present with arrest, current and former tech workers returned around 12:00PM PT on Wednesday, Aug. 20, to re-establish their “liberated zone.” Over the course of the next hour, things got increasingly tense, with Microsoft security and Redmond PD cops surrounding the encampment. Washington State Patrol, Bellevue Police, and Kirkland Police were also reportedly there assisting. Eventually, Redmond PD officers moved in to violently dismantle the encampment and arrest 20 members of the coalition.
“The Redmond Police Department was dispatched to the Microsoft courtyard at approximately 12:15PM in response to a large gathering of protesters,” Fox13 in Seattle reports. “According to the police, officers first attempted to issue trespass orders to the protesters, but they became “aggressive” and resisted… A Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement regarding Wednesday’s protest:
‘Yesterday, approximately 35 protesters gathered and protested on the Microsoft campus. When local police officers informed them that this was not permitted on private property, they left.
Today, the group returned and engaged in vandalism and property damage. They also disrupted, harassed, and took tables and tents from local small businesses at a lunchtime farmer’s market for employees. Local police officers made multiple arrests…
As we have made clear, Microsoft is committed to its human rights standards and contractual terms of service, including in the Middle East. The company announced last week that it is pursuing a thorough and independent review of new allegations first reported earlier this month about the purported use of its Azure platform in Israel.
Microsoft will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.’”
Additional links/info:
- No Azure for Apartheid Instagram and Linktree
- Tom Warren, The Verge, “Microsoft employee arrested at headquarters while protesting Israel contracts”
- Fox13, “Protest at Microsoft campus leads to 18 arrests”
- Harry Davies & Yuval Abraham, The Guardian, “‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians”
Credits:
- Filming: Maximillian Alvarez
- Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I was on the ground in Redmond, WA, this week covering a major protest action at Microsoft’s headquarters, which you may not have heard about, because I was literally one of the only journalists there…
Current and former tech workers at Microsoft joined with community supporters to establish an encampment at Microsoft headquarters in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide and in protest of Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military to provide tech that Israel uses to surveil, kill, and retroactively justify the killing of Palestinians. Just before 12:30pm PT on Tuesday, Aug. 19, members of the No Azure for Apartheid coalition walked out to Microsoft’s East Campus Plaza to establish their “liberated zone,” renaming the plaza to “The Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza.”
After police and company security dispersed the encampment on Tuesday, threatening all present with arrest, current and former tech workers returned around noon on Wednesday, Aug 20, to re-establish their “liberated zone.” Over the course of the next hour, things got increasingly tense, with Microsoft security and Redmond PD cops surrounding the encampment. Washington State Patrol, Bellevue Police, and Kirkland Police were also reportedly there assisting. Eventually, Redmond PD officers moved in to violently dismantle the encampment and arrest 20 members of the coalition.
I was one of the only journalists there on the ground at Microsoft on Tuesday and Wednesday, reporting for The Real News. I filmed every second of the police dismantling the encampment and the moments leading up to it. Police did issue multiple dispersal orders to the encampment, informing members that they were trespassing on private property and would be subject to arrest if they did not leave. That is true. Coalition members did use some tables and chairs from the Microsoft courtyard to construct makeshift barricades around the encampment, and red paint was poured on the ground and around the Microsoft sign in the Plaza. That is also true.
However, police have claimed that protestors became “aggressive” and a spokesperson for Microsoft said that protestors “harassed” others in the plaza and said that the company would “[take] clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.” The implication that the No Azure for Apartheid encampment was threatening or harming others during the action is categorically false. Again, I was standing 10 feet away the entire time, and I saw nothing of the sort. But you don’t have to take my word for it, you can see for yourself. What you’re about to watch is my uninterrupted shot of everything that went down. The cops start dismantling the encampment and making arrests 11 minutes into the video. Check it out, spread the word, fight corporate lies, and follow us on Instagram and TikTok for more updates…
Speaker 2:
Department leave property subject to arrest I or you’ll be subject to today. This is police department, you property, we’ll be subject, want, want against you? If you, against you, please sing and leave Microsoft Property where you’ll be stuck against. Please. 3, 3, 3. Star. 3, 3, 3.
Speaker 3:
Hey, real News Network. Say again. The Real News Network. Where’s that? We’re out in Baltimore, but we’re everywhere around the country. We do grassroots coverage. So when we hear something’s happening like this, we run and get there. Whoever’s the closest person
Speaker 2:
Father will be free, will be free to the River Department. You all sing property. You three Palestine. Three. Three Palestine. Be subject Palestine. Palestine, three Palestine, Palestine. Every time your life, every time another die. Another die every time another cousin die. And Microsoft Property, please. How many cases did you kill today? All the Be Palestine.
Speaker 4:
See what the cops are doing for a peaceful protest. This is the true face of Microsoft. They’re enabling a genocide with
Speaker 2:
Calm down. Calm down. I go, I go. I I go. I. If you three, three. From the river to the sea, from the river to the sea, ISE is almost free. Sea the sea. Be free from the river to the sea will be free. We’ll honor all our, our we, we’ll honor all our children will be free from seed Free Palestine. Free. Free. The free, free. Hi there. Are you filming this incident? I am. Gotcha. You’re allowed to do that. It just has to be from position of public property right now, this is private property. The, so you can either head to the street side over there, ridge over here, sidewalk there, or the public sidewalk. Over that way,
Speaker 5:
Colonial Aite, regime of the Israeli occupation will fall. And in those days when we
Speaker 3:
Living in a world with Look me up. Look back and say Max Alvarez, you on Instagram? Yeah. That’s what the Real News Network. The Real News Network.
Speaker 5:
You help apart South Africa. Would you help Nazi Germany what you are doing right now? It’s what you would’ve done under those circumstances to Microsoft who profits from the genocide and the Apartheid, and to the contractors, and to the employees who profit from the apartheid and the genocide, and to the police who forced these unjust laws and make it impossible for us to peaceably demand a resolution to this criminal enterprise. It’s you who are standing shoulder to shoulder with evil and history will not look kindly upon you
To be free. Be free to Paul. The star will be free. Ade will be free. I’m an American. I was born here. I went to American schools. I won American National Championships competing in American sports. I went overseas to represent America. Why is my country murdering children in Palestine? I studied my ass off. I was an honor student. I got my degree and I went to work in tech where I made good money and make good tax to be used to slaughter people in Palestine. Shame. When my neighbor breaks his leg, my Texas do not have to alleviate his financial burden. But when Israel needs to drop a bow on the Palestinian family, uncle Sam always has a diamond hand to give.
How many Americans can Israel kill and get away with it? How many Americans can Israel kill and get away with it? Rachel, Corey stood in Gaza. She was from Olympia, Washington. She stood in Rafa, the southern most city in Gaza, standing between a bulldozer and a Palestinian ho. She was smashed to death by the Israeli bulldozer operator as he committed ethnic destroying a Palestinian Hope Sha, you are law men and law women. Why don’t you enforce the law? Why don’t you get justice for Rachel Corey’s parents who to this day had no one answer for the crime of murdering their daughter an American. She was 26 years old when she was in the face by Ms. Harley er at the West Bank last September. She had just graduated from the University of Washington. A Seattle woman was murdered by distance by Ms. Harley, and he is living free while you come here to take the freedom away from people protesting genocide.
How many Americans are going to be killed by Israel before? Who is an American? Have an out of shade to question where you are standing and who are you are supporting? How many will it take? Jacob Flickinger was a Canadian American Special Forces veteran. He went on a World Central Kitchen tour in Gaza to feed Gaza because of December, 2023, the famine was declared level five catastrophic for 25% of the population. The World Central Kitchen coordinated with the IDF. These are our trucks. This is where we will be. Do not harm us. The IDF conducted. Not one, not do, but three. Aris on their vehicles feeling seven, including Jacob Flickinger. Those of you in law enforcement, most of you support veterans. Where is your support for the family of Jacob Flickinger? Where is your support for his widow and his children who had their father murdered and stolen from them by Israel? Like so many Palestinian families have had their fathers murdered and stolen by Israel. Shame, shame. You walk away and shame you. Turn your back in shape. We’ll remember you
Speaker 2:
Free
Speaker 5:
River. To be
Speaker 2:
Free. Be free. Free. Palestine free. Free Palestine. Free. Free. Free. Palestine. Free. Palestine free. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. The river, the sea will be free. Toe Palestine will be free. Palestine will be free. Free Palestine. 3 3, 3, 3. Fifth. You are a liar. Palestine on fire. He Palestine on fire. Brad Smith, you are a liar. Brad Smith, you are a liar. Palestine on fire, you Palestine on fire. Hey, Satya. What do you say, Satya? What do you say? How many kids did you kill today? How many kids did you kill today? Hey, Satya, what do you say? Hey, Satya, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today? How many did you killed today? Hey, Satya, you Hey, Satya. Kids are dying every minute. Kids are dying every minute. Smith.
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Author: Maximillian Alvarez
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