New York, NY – Google faced backlash after terminating over 50 employees who participated in protests against the company’s involvement in a $1.2 billion project that supports the Israeli military and government. The controversial project, named Project Nimbus, sparked tensions between Google’s management and staff, leading to organized protests in New York City and Sunnyvale, California by a group known as No Tech for Apartheid.
The protesters claimed that Project Nimbus would enable the Israeli government to surveil Palestinians and displace them from their land. Initially, Google fired 28 workers involved in the protests, followed by the termination of more than 20 additional employees a few days later. This move marked the largest round of firings since Israel’s military campaign in response to a terrorist attack by Hamas in October 2023, resulting in a significant number of casualties among Palestinians.
Workers at Google and Amazon have been actively opposing the $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government, citing concerns about the surveillance of Palestinians and the expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land facilitated by the project. Among the fired employees was Emaan Haseem, a software engineer at Google and a key organizer with No Tech for Apartheid. Haseem expressed disappointment in Google’s response, emphasizing the peaceful nature of the protests and the lack of engagement with workers’ concerns.
The terminated employees highlighted the financial instability caused by their firings but also noted the outpouring of support from colleagues and others. Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer in New York who was fired and arrested during the protest, reiterated the workers’ commitment to fight against projects that they believe contribute to genocide. Despite the firings, the workers declined to comment on potential legal actions they may pursue.
In response to the firings, No Tech for Apartheid criticized Google’s actions as “illegal” and emphasized the need for transparency and accountability. Google defended its decision, stating that the fired employees were directly involved in disruptive activities during the protests. The tech giant also clarified its position on Project Nimbus, maintaining that the contract aimed to provide cloud services for non-sensitive government workloads in compliance with their terms of service and acceptable use policy.