A counter-protester holding an Israeli flag walks into the parking lot near a protest at Google Cloud offices in Sunnyvale, California, US on April 16, 2024. (Reuters)
BEIRUT — Alphabet Inc.'s Google has terminated 28 employees following their participation in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon.com Inc. to supply the Israeli government with AI and cloud services, various medias report.
The protests, organized by the No Tech for Apartheid group, occurred across Google offices in New York City, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, California.
BREAKING— @google also orders for arrest of of its own workers in SUNNYVALE who sat in for 10 hours at @googlecloud CEO @thomasortk’s personal office, demanding google cut Project Nimbus, the company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel.
— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 17, 2024
arrests were caught on our livestream pic.twitter.com/pgLe4gkybY
In New York and California, protesters staged a nearly 10-hour sit-in, while others documented the event, including through a Twitch livestream. Nine individuals were arrested on trespassing charges.
Some workers received notice from the company's Employee Relations group that they were being placed on leave, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A sign put up in Google's office in Sunnyvale, California. (Credit: @NoTechApartheid/X)
The former employees "were terminated late Wednesday after an internal investigation," Google Vice President of Global Security Chris Rackow said in an official statement.
The affected employees were informed of their termination on Wednesday evening, as confirmed by a statement from Google staff associated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign in an official statement.
No Tech for Apartheid, the group that organized the protests, said in an official statement, “This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers — the ones who create real value for executives and shareholders."
Police officers arrested nine Google employees Tuesday following sit-in protests that lasted 10 hours, according to No Tech for Apartheid.
In 2022, Ariel Koren, who presented herself as a Jewish employee of Google in Bay View, California, announced her departure from Google in protest against Project Nimbus, stating that she was forced to resign against a backdrop of “retaliation and hostility against employees who speak out loud and clear.”
The cause, according to her, is her anti-Zionist activism and her open opposition to the Nimbus project, announced in April 2021 for Project Nimbus between Google and Amazon and the Israeli army.