Microsoft’s flagship developer conference was struck by another disruptive event on its third day when former employees Hossam Nasr and Vaniya Agrawal interrupted a live session to protest against Microsoft’s cloud computing contracts with the Israeli government. The protest unfolded during a technical session on AI security best practices, co-hosted by Neta Haiby, Microsoft’s Head of Security for AI, and Sarah Bird, Head of Responsible AI. As the session progressed, Agrawal and Nasr stormed the stage, shouting slogans and directly confronting Haiby over Microsoft’s alleged involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict. “Shame on you, Neta! You’re complicit!” they shouted before being escorted out by event security.

This is not the first time the Build 2025 conference has been disrupted. On May 19, a Microsoft staff member interrupted CEO Satya Nadella's keynote, repeating "Free Palestine" and calling for accountability. Again, on May 20, Executive Vice President of CoreAI Jay Parikh was interrupted during his speech by a Palestinian tech employee, who accused Microsoft of enabling "apartheid" by hosting its Azure cloud services.

Who Is Vaniya Agrawal?

Vaniya Agrawal is an Indian-American software engineer who served in Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence department for more than 18 months. Following her April protest, she publicly resigned and shared the email of her resignation on social media with thousands of employees at Microsoft, including CEO Nadella. Agrawal has since been actively posting protest images and videos from around the Build 2025 venue on the social media platform X, under the campaign hashtag #NoAz4Apartheid.

 

Also read: 'I Was Chained…': Indian Scholar Recounts US Jail Horror After Hamas Allegations | Who Is Badar Khan Suri? Why Was He Detained?

She was once a software engineer for Microsoft's artificial intelligence department, and is now a leading voice of pro-Palestine activism in the technology sector. This is her second high-profile disruption of a Microsoft event within a month. Last April 2025, Agrawal disrupted Microsoft's 50th anniversary celebration, accusing its top executives, including Satya Nadella, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates, of hypocrisy. “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology,” she shouted during the April event. “Shame on all of you for celebrating in their blood.” She was fired soon after, with Microsoft citing "acts of misconduct" and mandating an immediate termination, skipping her two-week notice period.

Also read: Indian-Origin Microsoft Employee Vaniya Agrawal Resigns After Disrupting Satya Nadella's Event: 'Can't Support Injustice'