Google fires 28 employees for protesting deal with Israel

(CNN) — Google this week fired more than two dozen employees who protested against the company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.

The employees were fired after the investigation found that they had organized protests inside Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. According to one, in Sunnyvale he entered the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian post on Of the group organizing the demonstration, no technique for apartheid,

Protesters held banners that read, “No more genocide for profit” and “We stand with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers.”

A Google spokesperson told CNN on Thursday that the protests were part of a “long-running campaign by a group of organizations and people who do not mostly work at the company”.

“A small number of protesting employees entered and disrupted some of our headquarters. Physically disrupting the work of other employees and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and completely unacceptable behavior. Many “Law enforcement agencies were called in to evict them and guarantee the security of the offices,” the spokesman said, after they refused to leave the facilities on occasions.

“To date we have concluded individual investigations resulting in the termination of the employment of 28 workers, and we will continue to investigate and take action as necessary.”

Google and Amazon have a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli government and military, known as Project Nimbus. no technique for apartheidIn which the retrenchment was strongly condemned.

“This blatant act of retaliation is a clear signal that Google values ​​its $1.2 billion contract with Israel’s genocidal government and military more than its workers,” the group said in a statement posted on Medium on Thursday.

Israel rejects claims that it is carrying out genocide in Gaza, arguing that it is waging a war against Hamas in self-defense. Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostage.

Google Cloud and Israel

Google Cloud’s contract with the government of Israel dates back to 2021, when the company announced it was to provide “public cloud services to help address the country’s challenges within the public sector, including health care, transportation, and education.” Was selected for.

But backlash came when Time magazine reported earlier this month, citing an internal company document, that Israel’s Defense Ministry is a Google Cloud customer.

According to Time, the ministry has its own secure entry point into the computing infrastructure provided by Google, which will allow it to store and process data and access artificial intelligence services. Earlier this year, the ministry had also requested consultancy assistance from Google to expand its access to Google Cloud, Time reported.

No tech for apartheid He said the article revealed that Google had “special equipment” for the Defense Ministry and that it had “doubled contracts” with Israel’s military since the war began.

A Google spokesperson said that Google Cloud “supports many governments around the world, including the Israeli government.”

“We are very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads run on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who are committed to complying with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy. This work is not highly targeted,” said a spokesperson. “Sensitive, classified or military workload involving weapons or intelligence services,” it said.

Google, on the other hand, confirmed that it will make an undetermined number of new layoffs as part of an internal restructuring. The workforce reduction will not impact the entire company and affected employees will be able to apply for other vacant positions at Google.

Google laid off hundreds of employees earlier this year, leading a wave of job cuts across the technology and media sectors, including at Amazon, Vice and the Los Angeles Times.

Olesya Dmitrakova provided information.