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Google has fired twenty-eight employees for participating in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud project with the Israeli government. Project Nimbus came under fire after the Intercept and Time reported that it provides services that can be exploited by Israeli military forces. According to the protesting employees, the project provides the Israeli security apparatus with advanced technology that could contribute to the killing or harm of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The twenty-eight dismissals, confirmed by Google, come a few hours after the arrest of nine of them, taken by the police during a sit-in protest in the office of the CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian, in Sunnyvale (California) and in a company office in New York.
Google spokeswoman Anna Kowalczyk said in a statement that the employees were fired after an internal investigation concluded they were guilty of “physically impeding the work of other employees and preventing them from accessing our facilities.” Kowalczyk also added that “after refusing numerous requests to leave the premises, law enforcement committed to removing them to ensure the safety of the office.” And she explained that the Project Nimbus contract is “not directed” at working for military purposes.
Tuesday’s action against Project Nimbus comes after the death toll from the IDF offensive against Hamas in Gaza rose to more than 34,000 Palestinians killed, including scores of children.