Google sacked 28 employees on Thursday following a disruptive sit-down protest over the company’s deal with the Israeli government, according to a Google representative.
The Tuesday action was organised by the group “No Tech for Apartheid,” which has long fought “Project Nimbus,” Google’s joint $1.2 billion contract with Amazon to supply cloud services to Israel’s government.
Workers held signs including “Googlers against Genocide,” a reference to accusations surrounding Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“No Tech for Apartheid,” which also held protests in New York and Seattle, pointed to an April 12 Time magazine article reporting a draft contract of Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defense more than $1 million for consulting services.
A “small number” of employees “disrupted” a few Google locations, but the protests are “part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google,” a Google spokesperson said.
“After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety,” the Google spokesperson said. “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.”
Israel is one of “numerous” governments for which Google provides cloud computing services, the Google spokesperson said.
“This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” the Google spokesperson said.
