Dozens of employees opposed cooperation with Israel, so Google fired them

Google laid off 28 employees on Wednesday after dozens of employees took part in sit-ins at the company's offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the company's technology-sharing contract with the Israeli government.

Here's What We Know

Google employees affiliated with the group that organised the sit-ins, No Tech for Apartheid, said the dismissals were a "blatant act of retaliation". Google condemned the protesters' actions for violating corporate policy and unacceptable behaviour.

In 2021, the company signed the Nimbus contract, which provided the Israeli government with access to cloud software for various ministries. Since the contract was signed, some Google employees have expressed concern that the company was helping the Israeli army.

Previous confrontations between Google's management and employee activists have escalated many times. In 2021, for example, employees successfully influenced the company to stop cooperating with the US Department of Defence, thus preventing the implementation of the Maven project. The protesters did not want the technology to be used by the military.

Nevertheless, the employees who took an active part in the protests against the Nimbus project do not plan to "stop fighting". They claim that they will continue to protest until the company withdraws from the deal with Israel.

Source: The New York Times