Nine Google employees were arrested during a sit-in protest staged at the company's offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California. The demonstration was against Google's recent $1.2 billion contract known as Project Nimbus, which provides Israel with cloud and machine learning services.
The protesters entered the offices on Tuesday, wearing shirts that read "Drop Project Nimbus" and holding banners stating "No tech for genocide." The sit-in lasted for about 10 hours, with protesters occupying the office of Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale.
The No Tech for Apartheid group, which organized the protest, stated that the New York protest took place in a common area on the tenth floor of Google's Chelsea location.
A video shared with The Washington Post by one of the protesters showed police offering the demonstrators the opportunity to leave voluntarily before arresting them for refusing to do so.
In response to the protest, Bailey Tomson, a Google spokesperson, stated, "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." Tomson added that the employees involved in the protest were put on administrative leave, and their access to Google systems was revoked.
This is not the first time Google employees have expressed their discontent with the company's ties to Israel. Earlier this year, an employee was fired for disrupting a tech conference in New York City, where he criticized Google's cooperation with Israel in its conflict with Palestinians in Gaza.
The $1.2 billion Project Nimbus contract involves both Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services providing cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence tools and machine learning, to Israeli agencies.
Employees and activists have raised concerns about the potential misuse of Google's AI and cloud computing tools for surveillance, military targeting, or weaponization. The No Tech for Apartheid group has condemned Google and Amazon for their involvement in what they describe as "genocidal attacks" on Gaza and demands the cancellation of Project Nimbus.
Current and former Google employees have expressed fear of speaking out against Project Nimbus or in support of Palestinians, citing concerns over potential retaliation.
