Google Employees Oppose Cloud Computing Deal with Israeli Government

Google Employees Stage Sit-In to Protest Company’s Controversial Contract

On Tuesday, a small group of Google employees gathered outside the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale to voice their opposition to Google’s sponsorship of a controversial conference. The sit-in was organized by members of the “No Tech for Apartheid” movement, which aims to raise awareness about Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a contentious contract with the Israeli government.

Fired for Speaking Out

Among the protesters in New York was Eddie Hatfield, a former Google cloud software engineer who was terminated just days after signing a petition against the company’s support of the conference. Following Hatfield’s dismissal, Vidana Abdel Khalek, a Google trust-and-safety-policy employee, spoke out against the company’s alleged retaliation against workers who have expressed support for Palestinians. Abdel Khalek urged Google’s leadership to publicly demonstrate their support for the Palestinian cause.

Raising Awareness Among Coworkers

Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer participating in the New York sit-in, has been actively involved in the “No Tech for Apartheid” movement since December. He and his colleagues have been holding weekly “tabling” actions at Google office cafés across the country, aiming to educate their coworkers about Project Nimbus.

“It’s actually shocking how many people at Google don’t even know that this contract exists. A lot of people who don’t know about it, who then learn about it through us, are reasonably upset that this contract exists. They just didn’t know that it existed beforehand.”

A History of Employee Activism

This is not the first time Google employees have mobilized against the company’s military contracts. In 2018, thousands of workers protested Project Maven, a controversial collaboration with the Pentagon. The outcry ultimately led Google to terminate its involvement with the project.

Silenced Voices and Ongoing Protests

Zelda Montes, a YouTube software engineer participating in the New York sit-in, claims that attempts to raise concerns about Project Nimbus through “appropriate channels” have been shut down. Posts about the project on internal company forums have allegedly been removed.

Montes hopes that the sit-in will inspire other tech workers to demand that their labor not be used to contribute to the conditions that enable genocide. Despite the potential risks to their careers, the protesters see their work with “No Tech for Apartheid” as the most important they have ever done.

As of Tuesday afternoon, four Google workers, including Ibraheem and Montes, continued their protest outside the company’s New York office, even as security attempted to remove them. The group has pledged to remain until they are forced to leave or their demands are met.

“I know that it’ll close some doors. It might close this door, it might close a lot of other big tech doors, but I firmly believe that it will close the doors that need to stay closed and open the ones that need to be opened. I don’t mind, and would actually prefer, that where I stand on Palestinian Liberation follows me for the rest of my life.”