Google Dismisses 28 Employees Over Protest Against Israel Collaboration

Google has terminated 28 employees for participating in a protest against the company’s contract with the Israeli government. The decision came after internal investigations, and more are underway, according to a Google spokesperson on Thursday. A group called “No Tech for Apartheid” occupied the office of Google Cloud storage service manager Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale, California, for ten hours. The protesters were arrested, as shown in video recordings shared online. Similar protests occurred in New York and Seattle. Google referred to the protesters as a “small number” of employees disrupting operations at multiple Google locations. The activists were against the collaboration between technology giants Google and Amazon with the Israeli government, totaling $1.2 billion. They cited a Time magazine report in April that mentioned Google billing over $1 million to the Israeli Defense Ministry for consulting services in a draft contract. A Google spokesperson emphasized that the company works with numerous governments, including Israel, but the services provided are not related to military or intelligence activities.