The protesters staged sit-ins to protest the tech giant’s work with the Israeli government, escalating the conflict inside tech companies over the war on Gaza.
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An image of protesters at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in California against Project Nimbus, a cloud computing project created for “Israel” (X/TimesofGaza)
Following a sit-in protest against Google’s work with “Israel”, nine employees were arrested across the company’s offices in New York and California, as confirmed by Jane Chung, a spokesperson for the protesters.
The incident was also confirmed via footage taken by one of the protesters and sent to The Washington Post, showing officers from the New York Police Department walking into the company premises and telling protesters they would be arrested if they didn’t stop.
When the employees refused, the police began to arrest them one by one.
Bailey Tomson, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement, “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.”
No Tech for Apartheid: A sit-in protest was organized at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in California to demand an end to Project Nimbus, a cloud computing project created for the IOF.
Activists were arrested after blocking the office for 8-hours. pic.twitter.com/c4g7PVIwJ7
— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) April 17, 2024
She added, on behalf of Google, “These employees were put on administrative leave, and their access to our systems was cut. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”
The protest took place around 2 pm Eastern time, as protesters vowed to stand their ground until the demand is met that Google withdraws a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon to provide cloud services and data centers to “Israel”.
Google’s Seattle offices also witnessed protesters walk into the premises, but no arrests were reported.
Google’s staff in California & New York occupy the firm’s offices for 8hrs over its complicity in israeli genocide | ceasefire or global chaos pic.twitter.com/T3X1YB8odJ
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) April 17, 2024
This comes mere days after Google negotiated with the Israeli occupation to deepen their partnership during the brutal war on Gaza, which has entered its seventh month recently with nearly 34,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and children, a Google document viewed by the TIME news site revealed.
The tech giant has provided cloud computing services for the Israeli occupation for years.
The Israeli Ministry of Security requested consulting help from Google to broaden its access to Google Cloud, aiming to enable “multiple units” to utilize automation technologies. A draft contract dated March 27, 2024, indicates that Google billed the Israeli Ministry more than $1 million for this consulting service.
A Google employee’s comment on the document dated March 27, requesting a signed copy of the contract, mentioned that the signatures would be “completed offline as it’s an Israel/Nimbus deal.” The document also states that Google gave the Ministry a 15% discount on the initial consulting fee as part of the “Nimbus framework”.
Read more: 600+ Google staff sign letter to drop sponsoring Israeli tech field
Project Nimbus is a contentious $1.2 billion cloud computing and AI deal involving the Israeli government and two tech giants, Google and Amazon.
Key figures in a growing movement within Google dubbed No Tech for Apartheid are pushing for the cancellation of Project Nimbus with “Israel” in the wake of the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
Google employees cited three primary concerns driving their protests: first, the Israeli Finance Ministry’s explicit statement in 2021 indicating that Project Nimbus would serve the Ministry of Security; second, the types of services potentially made available to the Israeli government through Google’s cloud platform; and third, Google’s apparent inability to oversee how “Israel” utilizes its technology.
