Google Sacks 28 Employees for Opposing Deal With Israel

Google sacked its 28 employees, who were involved in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon.com Inc. to provide the Israeli government with AI and cloud services.

The protests, which were led by the No Tech for Apartheid organization, took place on Tuesday across Google offices in New York City, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, California.

Protesters in New York and California staged a nearly 10-hour sit-in. Nine of them were arrested on Tuesday evening on trespassing charges.

Several workers involved in the protests received a message from the company’s Employee Relations group informing them that they had been put on leave. On Wednesday evening, the workers were informed they were being dismissed by the company, according to a statement from Google staff with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign.

“After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety. We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed,” Google said in a statement.