Google has terminated over two dozen employees in response to demonstrations against the company's cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government.
The individuals were fired following an internal investigation that found their participation in protests at Google's offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, according to Chris Rackow, Google's vice president for global security. In a companywide email, Rackow stated, "Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened."
"Physically obstructing other employees' work and hindering their access to our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and completely unacceptable. After ignoring multiple requests to leave, law enforcement was called to ensure office safety," a Google spokesperson informed CBS MoneyWatch.
Nine protesters were arrested, as reported by No Tech for Apartheid, the group behind the demonstrations, which they claim were peaceful.
The demonstrators reportedly entered an office used by Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, according to a post on social media by the organization.
"Google employees have the right to peacefully protest about the terms and conditions of our work. These terminations were clearly retaliatory," No Tech stated in a statement.
Protests erupted today against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon to provide AI and cloud services to the Israeli government. No Tech, the organization leading the protests, referenced a recent Time Magazine report which revealed Google's involvement in building custom tools for Israel's Ministry of Defense and contracts with the Israeli Occupation Forces.
In response, a Google spokesperson stated, "Google Cloud supports numerous governments worldwide, including the Israeli government, with our cloud computing services. Our work does not involve highly sensitive or military-related tasks pertaining to weapons or intelligence services."
