The tech giant has laid off 28 workers following a disruptive sit-in protest over Google's contract with the Israeli government, a Google spokesman said Thursday.
Tuesday's demonstration was organized by No Tech for Apartheid, a group that has long opposed Project Nimbus, a $1,2 billion JAV $1,1 billion (€XNUMX billion) joint contract between Google and Amazon to provide cloud services to the Israeli government.
The video footage captured during the demonstration shows how police In Sunnyvale, California, Google employees are being held at the office of Thomas Kurian, head of Google Cloud.
According to No Tech for Apartheid, Kurian's office was occupied for 10 hours.
Employees held placards that read, among other things, "googlers against genocide."
The group No Tech for Apartheid, which has also held protests in New York and Seattle, drew attention to the April 12 a Time magazine article about a draft contract ordering Google to pay more than $1 million to Israel's Defense Ministry USD for consulting services.
A Google spokesman said a "small" number of workers had taken "disruptive" action at several Google facilities, but that the protests were "part of a long-term campaign by organizations and Google's mostly non-working group."
A spokesman claimed that law enforcement was called in after demonstrators "refused multiple requests to leave the premises." Such measures are said to have been taken in order to "ensure the security of the office". "We conducted individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment with 28 employees," the representative said.
He noted that Israel is one of "many" governments to which Google provides cloud computing services. "This activity does not target highly sensitive, classified or military work involving weapons or intelligence services," the spokesman assured.
Lina Linkevičiūtė (AFP)
