No Tech for Apartheid: Google Cloud Sit-in for Google’s Cloud Services to the Israeli Defense Ministry and Google/Apple
The sit-in, organized by the activist group No Tech for Apartheid, is happening at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in Sunnyvale and the 10th floor commons of Google’s New York office. The sit-in will be accompanied by outdoor protests at Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale, San Francisco, and Seattle beginning at 2 pm ET and 11 am PT.
Google and Amazon workers protested outside company offices in 2022 after The Intercept published documents showing the contract includes AI technology such as video analysis. Tech workers are protesting that such capabilities could be used by Israel to harm Palestinians.
It was reported last week by Time that Google is helping the Israeli Military of Defense. A company document viewed by TIME shows that the Israeli Ministry of Defense has its own “landing zone” into Google Cloud. According to a contract viewed by TIME, the defense ministry sought help from the internet search engine to expand its Cloud access. Google offered the defense ministry a 15 percent discount on the consulting fees because of the “Nimbus framework,” according to the contract, and the defense ministry paid more than $1 million for Google’s consulting services. The contract was not signed but a comment on it said it was part of an Israel/Nimbus deal.
Last month, Google cloud software engineer Eddie Hatfield disrupted Google Israel’s managing director at Mind The Tech, a company-sponsored conference focused on the Israeli tech industry. More than 1,000 people signed a petition against the companySponsoring the conference, but Hatfield was fired three days later, and a trust and safety policy employee resigned in protest.
Then, in late March, more than 300 Apple workers signed an open letter that alleged retaliation against workers who have expressed support for Palestinians, and urged company leadership to show public support for Palestinians.
Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer, is participating in the sit-in at his local Google office in New York. “This has really been a culmination of our efforts,” he tells WIRED.
Witnessing the Assault of Project Nimbus at the Sunnyvale Office in Gaza: A Protest against Israel’s Military Action
“We will not be leaving,” a protesting worker replies. A man wearing an NYPD uniform introduces officers to him and gives them a last chance to walk out. “If not, you can be arrested for trespass,” he says. Police put protesters in handcuffs when they refuse to leave.
The Sunnyvale arrests occurred around the same time. Workers at the Sunnyvale office were livestreaming their protest on Twitch and captured the moment they were arrested. In the video, a man who looks like a security guard is asking the workers to leave and threatening to call the police. Later, six police officers enter the office to arrest the five workers.
“We did not come to Google to work on technology that kills. Billy Van Der Laar, a Sunnyvale-based software engineer, said contract leadership betrayal has betrayed trust, ourAI Principles, and our humanity.
The internal opposition to Project Nimbus has been added to by the Israel’s military assault on Gaza. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza.
The Two Workers of the Ibraheem-Montes Laboratories in New York, ABJL, Revisited
Software engineers Hasan Ibraheem and Zelda Montes are in New York. The workers who identified themselves with their first names being Mohammed and Jess on a speaker-phone call were outside of the New York office.