Tech major Google has fired 28 employees for protesting against the company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.
Google fired 28 employees in connection with sit-in protests at two of its offices this week, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge.
The workers were reportedly removed after an investigation showed they were demonstrating inside the offices of the IT major in New York and Sunnyvale, California.
In Sunnyvale, they entered the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, according to a post on X by the group that organised the demonstration, No Tech For Apartheid, reported CNN.
As per video published on X page of the group, the protesters were seen holding banners which read “No More Genocide For Profit” and “We Stand with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers”.
A Google spokesperson told CNN Thursday that the protests “were part of a long-standing campaign by a group of organisations and people who largely don’t work” at the company.
“A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations. Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behaviour. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety,” the spokesperson added.
“We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed,” the spokesperson said.
The No Tech For Apartheid website said, “Google is enabling and profiting from Israel’s AI-powered genocide through Project Nimbus, their $1B cloud contract with Israel.”
Israel has denied committing genocide in Gaza and argued that it is fighting against Hamas group.
Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and killed 1200 people besides taking over 250 people as hostages.
Google Clouds’ contract with the Israeli government dates back to 2021.
“Google Cloud today announced that it has been selected by the Israeli government to provide public cloud services to help address the country’s challenges within the public sector, including in healthcare, transportation, and education,” Google had said in a statement published in 2021.
The company earlier said the project will run for an initial period of 7 years, and the Israeli government may extend the engagement for up to 23 years in total.
