Google fires 28 employees who protested over Israel contract

GOOGLE has sacked 28 employees who protested about the technology giant’s work for the Israeli military by staging sit-ins at the company’s US offices.

Nine people were arrested for trespassing after refusing to leave the demonstrations at Google’s offices in New York and Silicon Valley, northern California.

Google is providing cloud computing services and artificial intelligence software to the Israeli government under Project Nimbus, which is reportedly worth up to $1.2bn (£1bn).

On Tuesday, dozens of staff wearing T-shirts with such slogans as “Googler against genocide” on them unfurled banners and posed in the office of Thomas Kurian, the head of Google’s cloud computing division. Placards with slogans such as “No more genocide for profit” and “No cloud for apartheid” were displayed at the protests organised by campaign group No Tech For Apartheid, which broadcast them on streaming site Twitch.

On Wednesday Google staff were told the demonstrators had been investigated after having their access to IT systems terminated, and that 28 were fired.

Chris Rackow, Google’s head of security, wrote: “The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing. If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again.

“The company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to take action against disruptive behaviour – up to and including termination.”

One of those sacked, Kate J Sim, wrote on social media platform X: “Mccarthyism is alive and well. Look how terrified they are of worker power.”

‘Mccarthyism is alive and well. Look how terrified Google is of worker power’