Google has fired more than 20 employees who publicly protested Google’s controversial $1.2 billion cloud computing deal with Israel. The move comes as agencies face increasing pressure from the government to withdraw U.S.-funded forces, which are entering their sixth month of assault on Gaza.
Workers protested Tuesday at Google campuses in New York City and Sunnyvale, California, the latter of which is home to Google’s cloud headquarters. Organized by No Tech for Apartheid, the workers joined Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian to protest Project Nimbus, a joint deal with Amazon to provide satellites to the Israeli government and military. participated in a 10-hour sit-in inside offices including Intelligence and cloud services.
Google had police arrest nine employees who protested on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the tech giant announced it had fired 28 employees following an internal investigation. Send to company-wide email Comment from Chris Rackow, Google’s Vice President of Global Security. The email was obtained by multiple news organizations.
The protesters “occupied office space, defaced our property, and physically interfered with the work of other Googlers. Their actions were unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and posed a threat to our colleagues.” “It made me feel that way,” Rakow wrote, adding that employees should expect company leaders to talk more about standards of behavior and discourse in the office.
“This kind of behavior has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it,” he continued. “This clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must abide by, including our Code of Conduct and our Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns policies.”
The NTFA acknowledged the retaliatory firings and arrests in a statement Wednesday, claiming that some of the fired workers did not even directly participate in the protests. The group also vigorously denied Google’s claims that protesters defaced property and disrupted co-workers’ work, and pushed back against the company’s claims that most of the demonstrators were not employees of the company.
“This is not only false, it is insulting. Thousands of colleagues have joined our call for Project Nimbus to be cancelled, and are now questioning how the contract impacts health and safety on the job. “We supported the dozens of brave workers who spoke out publicly.”
“Above all, the well-being of those of us you just kicked out of your company for voicing concerns about Project Nimbus, and of our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim colleagues who face racism and discrimination by Google.” “It’s an insult to ‘, harassment and censorship,'” the statement continued, adding that the company’s management has long ignored concerns raised internally about the contract.
Teyfan Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
Google employees and NTFA members have been protesting Project Nimbus since its inception three years ago. The deal gives Israel full access to Google Cloud’s AI and machine learning technology for the first seven years, reportedly even after Google and Amazon Web Services come under pressure to boycott the service. The agreement includes strict provisions that will allow for the continuation of the agreement. At the time, Google’s Jewish employees sent a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai to review contracts with “agencies that support Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights,” citing the Israel Defense Forces as an example. I asked.
Criticism of the Nimbus program has intensified since October 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people. Since then, Israeli forces have killed some 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, destroyed much of the territory, and sparked an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has shaken the international community.
According to Time magazine, Google claims that Project Nimbus “is not intended for highly sensitive classified or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence.” But last week, Time reported that Google has built custom tools for the Israeli Defense Ministry, doubling its contracts with the Israeli Defense Forces since the military offensive in Gaza began.
In addition to Project Nimbus, the NTFA claims that the Israeli military is using Google Photos as part of its facial recognition operations in Gaza. According to the New York Times, the resulting mass surveillance led the Israeli military to create a kind of “hit list” of Palestinians fleeing artillery fire, and to detain and torture civilians with little evidence. It is reported that there are.
The controversy surrounding Project Nimbus is amplified by an investigation earlier this month by the Israeli-Palestinian news agency +972, which found that the Israeli Defense Forces are using an AI-powered targeting system called “Lavender” to target humans. This comes after it became clear that they were selecting targets for airstrikes with little oversight. Israel previously told HuffPost that its military does not use AI systems to identify Hamas militants and that “the information system is only a tool for analysts in the target identification process.”
Last month, Eddie Hatfield, a Google Cloud engineer and NTFA activist, was fired shortly after disrupting an Israeli technology conference hosted by the company. Shortly after Hatfield’s firing, Vidana Abdel Khalek, Google’s trust and security policy employee, resigned in protest of Project Nimbus.
Two more Google employees resigned last week over the contract and Google’s ties to the Israeli military, according to Time.
“Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian are genocidal profiteers,” the NTFA said in a statement. “Thanks to their technology, how do they sleep at night, even as 100,000 Palestinians have been killed, reported missing or injured, and counting, in Israel’s massacres over the past six months?” We don’t understand how that is possible.”
