Google fires 28 employees following sit-in protests over controversial Project Nimbus contract with Israel

Google has laid off 28 employees following prolonged sit-in protests at its offices in Sunnyvale and New York.

The employees were protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract that Google and Amazon signed with the Israeli government and military three years ago. The controversial project also reportedly provides Israel with Google Cloud's full suite of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, but Google and Amazon reportedly bow to pressure to boycott it. It is said that there are strict contract provisions that prevent this. This effectively means that it must continue to serve Israel no matter what.

conflict

Google employees have been protesting and publicly condemning the deal since 2021, but the unrest comes as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to escalate following attacks by Hamas last October. This has further spread to employees of companies who are considered more than just employees. But they actively profit from the conflict.

Recent rallies have also included demonstrations outside Google's Sunnyvale and New York offices and Amazon's Seattle headquarters, but protesters went a step further by calling out Google Cloud's CEO They entered the building, including Thomas Kurian's office.

In a statement to TechCrunch through the anti-big tech advocacy firm Justice Speaks, Google software engineer Hasan Ibraheem, who is participating in the New York City sit-in protests, said that Google does not provide cloud and AI infrastructure to the Israeli military. By providing such services, they are “directly involved in the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

“It's my responsibility to do everything in my power to terminate this agreement while Google pretends that nothing is wrong,” Ibraheem said. “The thought of working for a company that directly provides the infrastructure for genocide makes me sick. We tried to send a petition to the leadership, but we were ignored. We can’t let them ignore us anymore.” Make as much noise as possible. Many workers don't know that Google has this contract with IOF. [Israel Offensive Forces]. Many people are unaware that their colleagues are being harassed for being Muslim, Palestinian, or Arab and for speaking out. Too many people don't realize how complicit their companies are. It's our job to make sure they do that. ”

Nine Google employees were also arrested and removed from four offices in New York and five in Sunnyvale. A separate statement released by Justice Speaks on behalf of the so-called “Nimbus Nine” protesters said they had requested to speak to Kurian, but their request was denied.

Here is the full text of the statement:

Last night, Google decided to arrest us, the company's employees, instead of engaging with our concerns about Project Nimbus, its $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with Israel. Sitting in Thomas Kurans' office, we repeatedly requested to speak to the Google Cloud CEO, but our requests were denied. Over the past three years since the agreement was signed, we have communicated with Google executives about Project Nimbus through internal channels, including town halls, forums, a petition signed by more than 1,000 employees, and direct outreach from relevant employees. I have tried repeatedly.

Google executives have ignored our ethical responsibilities for the impact of our technology and our concerns about the internal environment, including workplace health and safety harm, retaliation, harassment, and bullying caused by this contract. Instead, Google suppresses internal speech at every turn and tolerates the harassment, intimidation, bullying, silencing, and censorship of his Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Googlers.

Workers have a right to know how their labor is being used and a right to have a say in ensuring that the technology they build is not used to cause harm. Workers also have the right to go to work without fear, anxiety, or stress because their labor could be used to promote genocide. Google is stripping us of these basic rights, which is why we were holding sit-ins in offices across the country yesterday.

Meanwhile, Google continues to lie to its employees, the media, and the public. As of yesterday, Google continued to insist that Project Nimbus is not intended for highly sensitive classified or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence. But TIME magazine's report proves otherwise. Google builds custom tools for the Israeli Ministry of Defense and has doubled its contracts with the Israeli occupation force, the Israeli military, since the start of the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. By continuing to lie, Google disrespects and disrespects consumers, the media, and most importantly, its employees.

We will not remain silent in light of Google's blatant lies. Hundreds of thousands of his Google employees joined No Tech for Apartheids' call for the company to scrap Project Nimbus. We persist despite Google's attempts to silence us and ignore our concerns. We will continue to organize and fight until Google cancels Project Nimbus and stops aiding and abetting Israel's genocide and apartheid state in Palestine.

A Google spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that 28 employees were fired and said the company “will continue to investigate and take action as appropriate.”

“These protests were part of a long-standing campaign by primarily organizations and groups of people who do not work at Google,” the spokesperson said. “A small number of employee protesters have entered several of our locations and caused disruption. We are not responsible for physically interfering with the work of other employees or impeding access to our facilities. , a clear violation of our company's policies and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave, law enforcement worked to remove them to ensure the security of the office.”

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/18/google-fires-28-employees-after-sit-in-protest-over-controversial-project-nimbus-contract-with-israe/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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