Google fires employee who protested deal with Israel government

Google has terminated an employee who publicly criticised the company’s involvement with the Israeli military during a keynote speech in New York at the annual Mind the Tech conference.

The incident occurred on Monday when an employee from Google’s Israel branch protested against the company’s collaboration with the Israeli military.

The now-dismissed Google Cloud engineer disrupted the event by shouting, “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance.”

Confirming the termination, Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson stated, “Earlier this week, an employee disrupted a coworker who was giving a presentation — interfering with an official company-sponsored event. This behaviour is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies.”

The protest targeted Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between the Israeli government and tech giants Google and Amazon, reported CNBC. This initiative aims to enhance access to cloud services but has raised controversy since its inception in 2021. Critics argue that such technologies facilitate surveillance and data collection on Palestinians, raising ethical concerns.

In recent weeks, over 600 Google workers signed a letter addressed to leadership asking the company to drop its sponsorship of the annual Mind the Tech conference, which promotes the Israeli tech industry, as reported by CNBC.

“No Tech For Apartheid,” an organisation opposing Project Nimbus, released a statement regarding the firing of the protesting Google engineer.