Google has dismissed approximately 20 more employees following recent protests against the company's contract with Israel, bringing the total number of terminated workers to over 50 in the past week.
On Monday, activist group No Tech for Apartheid reported the latest layoffs, accusing Google of attempting to silence dissent and exert control over its employees. Jane Chung, a spokesperson for the group, stated, “The corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers, and reassert its power over them.”
Google confirmed the dismissals, which came after an investigation into anti-Israel demonstrations held on April 16 at the company's offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California. Protesters displayed posters with messages such as “No More Genocide For Profit,” “No cloud apartheid,” and “We Stand with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers.”
The demonstrations were in response to Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract awarded to Google and Amazon to provide cloud computing services to Israel. While the contract dates back to 2021, recent protests were sparked by a Time magazine report revealing that Google had developed custom tools for the Israeli ministry of military affairs and increased its contracting with the regime’s army following conflict in the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza conflict began after Palestinian group Hamas launched an operation against Israeli forces, leading to a retaliatory attack by Israel. Since then, casualties have been reported on both sides, with the U.S. expediting arms shipments to Israel and blocking UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
