Google Fires 28 Employees Involved in the $1.2B Israel Contract Protest

In a recent turn of events, Google has terminated 28 employees who participated in a 10-hour sit-in at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California.

The 28 employees had participated in protests against the company’s cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government. The contract, known as Project Nimbus, involves providing cloud and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military.

The pro-Palestinian staff at Google donned traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday, April 16 during which they wore shirts and raised banners reading “No more genocide for profit.”

Following an internal investigation, Google’s vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, announced that the protesters were fired late on Wednesday, April 17. Rackow emphasized that their behavior was unacceptable, disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened.

Rackow stated that the protesters’ actions violated multiple company policies, including the code of conduct, anti-harassment policies, and workplace standards. Google takes such matters seriously and will enforce consequences, up to and including termination.

The protest extended beyond California. In New York, protesters occupied the 10th floor of Google’s offices in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. This coordinated effort was part of what they called the “No Tech for Genocide Day of Action.”

The fired employees are associated with a group called No Tech For Apartheid, which has been critical of Google’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The impacted workers expressed their outrage over the firings.

In a statement shared by No Tech For Apartheid spokesperson Jane Chung, they condemned Google’s actions. According to them, this retaliation highlights Google’s prioritization of its $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military over the well-being of its own employees despite Google’s assertion that the firings were due to policy violations.

The statement did not mince words. It accused Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, and the CEO of its cloud unit, Thomas Kurian, of being “genocide profiteers.” The workers questioned how these leaders could sleep at night while their technology contributed to the suffering of Palestinians.

This incident underscores the tension between corporate interests, social responsibility, and employee activism within tech giants like Google.