Google Sacks 28 Employees Protesting Against $1.2 Billion Deal With Israel

Google has reportedly sacked 28 employees after they protested a $1.2 billion deal with the Israeli government. The employees were protesting Project Nimbus, which a joint contract with Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud services and artificial intelligence technology.   

The protests were led by the organisation - No Tech For Apartheid - on Tuesday across Google offices in New York, Seattle and Sunnyvale, California. In New York and California, the protestors staged a 10-hour sit-in.

The protest comes in wake of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardment has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians. As the war rages on and no truce in sight, many have called for urgent divestment from Israel and its government.

The Google employees who were involved in the protests were informed by the tech giant that they had been "put on leave". The Alphabet Inc. company further told the employees to keep the matter confidential.   

As per an email seen by Bloomberg, the employees who had been put on leave were informed that the company will be " “keeping this matter as confidential as possible, only disclosing information on a need-to-know basis”.   

On Wednesday, a day after the employees were put on leave, they were fired by the company. The company has accused the protestors and employees of “physically impeding other employees' work and preventing them from accessing our facilities". As per Google, the employees were in "clear violation of company policy".   

Addressing the protests across Google offices, the tech giant stated - "After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety. We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees and will continue to investigate and take action as needed.”  

This is not the first instance where Google has sacked employees for speaking out. In 2018 during the MeToo movement, Google employees who staged a walkout over the company's handling of sexual assault and harassment alleged that they were "punished" by the company while some were fired almost immediately.