'Impossible to Continue': Google Employees StageProtest in Office Against Company's Ties With Israel

New Delhi: Google employees in California and New York staged protests against the company's collaboration with the Israeli government. The sit-in protests were organised at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office in California. Reports claimed that around 8-9 employees were arrested after they refused to move for over eight hours.

Their demands centred around Project Nimbus, a billion-dollar AI contract signed in 2021. A video capturing the incident has also emerged showing employees seated inside the Google office as part of their protest.  

About Project Nimbus

Signed in 2021, the contract between Google and Amazon, known as Nimbus, involves providing cloud computing services to the Israeli government. Since its inception, the contract has faced criticism from both employees and activists. However, objections have intensified in light of Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which was prompted by a terrorist attack attributed to Hamas on October 7th.

“I would not like to lose my job. But I think that it is impossible for me to continue coming into work every week without acknowledging and loudly condemning Project Nimbus and any support for the Israeli government", a leading portal quoted an employee as saying.

Google Supplies Cloud Services to the Israel Defense Ministry

Meanwhile, Google has been offering cloud computing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with signs suggesting a potential expansion of the partnership amid the conflict in Gaza, as disclosed in a TIME report. The document indicates that the Israeli Ministry of Defense has its own designated entry point, known as a "landing zone," within Google Cloud. This secure access enables the ministry to leverage Google's computing infrastructure for tasks such as data storage, processing, and accessing AI services.