Google this week fired 28 tech workers who protested the company’s cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Vice President for Global Security Chris Rackow sent out an email saying the employees were let go for demonstrating outside Google’s offices in New York and California calling the protests “unacceptable” and “extremely disruptive,” and suggested they “made co-workers feel threatened.”
Rackow added, in a tone one would expect from the security guy, “The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing. … If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again.”
On Tuesday, the group No Tech for Apartheid (a subsidiary of the notoriously anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace) tweeted in mostly caps: BREAKING—DOZENS OF GOOGLE WORKERS LEAD HISTORIC COAST TO COAST-INS AT GOOGLE CLOUD CEO THOMAS KURIAN’S OFFICE IN SUNNYVALE & GOOGLE’s NYC 10TH FLOOR COMMONS. They refuse to leave until Google stops powering the genocide in Gaza.”
@GOOGLE WORKER COAST TO COAST SIT IN UPDATE HOUR 3— Workers remain steadfast in their commitment to remain inside @googlecloud CEO thomas kurian’s office and google HQ NYC until they drop Project Nimbus or are arrested
SUPPORT WORKERS: https://t.co/7pKYAvy6Rm pic.twitter.com/7rb1kgi0hk
— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 16, 2024
I know, it looks like their Caps Lock button broke in mid-protest.
A spokeswoman for No Tech for Apartheid issued a statement saying, “This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers—the ones who create real value for executives and shareholders.”
Israel’s Finance Ministry announced in April 2021 that the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus would provide “the government, the defense establishment, and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution.” The crucial part of the deal: under the contract, Google and Amazon would establish local cloud sites that “keep information within Israel’s borders under strict security guidelines.”
It means that crafty Russian and Iranian hackers will have a much harder time stealing Israeli government and IDF data. How is that genocide?
See, the protesters already believe that Israel is engaged in the daily beheading of Arab babies (in time for Pesach?). The Jewish State is an apartheid pariah and no one should trade with it – unless, of course, they need a pacemaker, or a CT, or any of the other thousands of technological, social, and cultural gifts Israeli men and women have given the world.
The protesters may have referred to another publicized fact about the Israeli government’s contract with Google and Amazon: under no circumstances can these two companies suspend their services under BDS pressure, nor are they permitted to prevent cloud service to the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.
In August 2022, an Israeli woman named Ariel Koren, who worked as a marketing manager for Google, sent out a memo to fellow employees, saying:
My name is Ariel Koren. I am a Jewish Google worker who has worked at Google for over seven years. I feel so grateful to over 700 Googlers (alongside 25,000 people externally) who recently signed a petition calling on Google to rescind its act of retaliation against me for protesting Google’s Project Nimbus—a $1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon, and the Israeli government and military.
…
I have consistently witnessed that instead of supporting diverse employees looking to make Google a more ethical company, Google systematically silences Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim voices concerned about Google’s complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights — to the point of formally retaliating against workers and creating an environment of fear. In my experience, silencing dialogue and dissent in this way has helped Google protect its business interests with the Israeli military and government.
Google presented Koren with an ultimatum: move to Sao Paulo, Brazil, within 17 days or lose her job. She opted for the latter and has devoted her efforts since then to fighting Google, Amazon, and Israel.
A Google spokesman this week argued that Project Nimbus “is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”
OK, he’s lying, because that’s his job. In the end, it comes down to dollars, and Google and Amazon want Israel’s dollars, and $1.2 billion trumps a leftist Jew fighting her Israeli demons, whatever those might be.
