Google fires more workers after protests against contract with Israel

Google has fired more than 20 additional workers following last week’s protests over the tech giant’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, the group that organized the protests said Monday night. 

The latest firings bring the total number of terminated staff to more than 50, according to No Tech for Apartheid.  

“This evening, in an aggressive and desperate act of retaliation, Google fired over 20 additional workers — including non-participating bystanders during last week’s protests,” the activist group said in a statement. 

Google confirmed that it had terminated additional employees but did not provide a specific number. A spokesperson said the employees “were found to have been directly involved in disruptive activity.” 

“To reiterate, every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings. We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed this,” the spokesperson added. 

Google initially fired more than two dozen workers last week following sit-ins at its offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, Calif., protesting a $1.2 billion contract that the company shares with Amazon to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli government. 

The tech giant said some employees “took longer to identify because their identity was partly concealed–like by wearing a mask without their badge–while engaged in the disruption.” 

The controversial contract at the center of the protests, known as Project Nimbus, has faced backlash from workers and activists since it was initially signed in 2021. However, objections to the cloud computing agreement have escalated amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 surprise attack. 

No Tech for Apartheid alleged Monday that Google “is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers, and reassert its power over them.” 

“In its attempts to do so, Google has decided to unceremoniously, and without due process, upend the livelihoods of over 50 of its own workers,” the group added. “That’s because Google values its profit, and its $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military, more than people.”