Google sacks 28 workers amid protest against Israeli contract

A Google spokesperson announced Thursday that the company had terminated the employment of 28 individuals following a disruptive sit-down protest related to Google’s contract with the Israeli government.

The protest, organized by the group “No Tech for Apartheid,” targeted Google’s involvement in “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion collaboration with Amazon to offer cloud services to the Israeli government.

Video footage of the protest depicted police detaining Google employees at the Sunnyvale, California office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, as reported by the advocacy group on X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to the advocacy group, Kurian’s office remained occupied for a duration of 10 hours.

During the protest, demonstrators held signs with messages such as “Googlers against Genocide,” reflecting concerns over Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“No Tech for Apartheid,” which also held protests in New York and Seattle, pointed to an April 12 Time magazine article reporting a draft contract of Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defense more than $1 million for consulting services.

A “small number” of employees “disrupted” a few Google locations, but the protests are “part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google,” a Google spokesperson said.

“After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety,” the Google spokesperson said. “We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed.”

Israel is one of “numerous” governments for which Google provides cloud computing services, the Google spokesperson said.

“This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” the Google spokesperson said.

AFP