On Tuesday, Google employees from two separate offices staged protests against the company’s collaboration with the Israeli government, expressing opposition to a billion-dollar contract signed in 2021.
Protestors organized sit-ins at locations in Sunnyvale, Calif., and one of New York City’s offices. The sit-in at the Sunnyvale office was orchestrated by the activist group No Tech for Apartheid, with protestors entering Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office, insisting they would not leave until the tech giant withdrew from its $1.2 billion contract.
The contract, dubbed Nimbus, shared between Google and Amazon, provides cloud computing services to the Israeli government. Initially signed in 2021, the contract faced criticism from workers and activists, with objections intensifying amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza triggered by a terrorist attack on Oct. 7.
Google software engineer Emaan Haseem and her colleagues voiced concerns over the company’s association with the Israeli government, despite potential consequences.
“I would not like to lose my job,” Haseem told ABC 7 News. “But I think that it is impossible for me to continue coming into work every week without acknowledging and loudly condemning Project Nimbus and any support for the Israeli government.”
Project Nimbus, structured to facilitate the sharing of Google and Amazon services with various branches of the Israeli government, sparked concerns among employees, particularly regarding the inability to shut down services or bar services to specific government branches.
According to Time Magazine, Google has provided cloud computing services to the Israel Defense Ministry.
In response to the protests, a Google spokesperson stated, “Google Cloud supports numerous governments around the world, including the Israeli government, with our cloud computing services. We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.”
The spokesperson also noted that the protests involved organizations and individuals largely not employed by Google. Regarding employees who participated in the protests, they were put on administrative leave, and their access to company systems was terminated.
“A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a couple of our locations,” the spokesperson explained. “Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and we will investigate and take action.”
