Google fires 50 employees after protesting against contract with Israeli government

Technology giant Google has fired more than 50 employees in recent weeks after internal protests against a deal with the Israeli government. The employees feared that their work was being used for military purposes.

Since April 16, Google has laid off more than 50 employees in two waves. According to the company, they could be linked to sit-in actions that took place at the offices in Silicon Valley, New York and Seattle. In addition, the employees’ association “No tech for Apartheid” wanted to register opposition to the Nimbus project, in which Google provides services to the Israeli government.

That $1.2 billion project has been under discussion since 2021. Officially it is a collaboration between Google and Amazon cloud computing services to be supplied to the Israeli government. Google says the project will help “digitally transform Israel in finance, healthcare, transportation and education.” But a leaked Google presentation showed that Israel will, among other things, have access to Google’s advanced facial recognition software. No tech for Apartheid fears that the services could be used for military purposes, such as surveillance of Palestinians.

In recent years, internal action has been taken against the project several times. There was a new uproar last Tuesday, when more than 100 protesters blocked the Google offices. Google considered this sufficient reason to first dismiss 28, and then another 20, employees.

Bee The Guardian software engineer Emaan Haseem testified about her dismissal, and the reason for her opposition. “Google had the opportunity to provide transparency and prove that the Israeli military cannot use the technology for military purposes, but chose to fire us. However, employees have the right to know that the technology they build is not being misused.”