Google fires 28 employees involved in sit-in protest over $1.2B Israel contract

A large group of Google employees hold signs protesting their company's participation in "Project Nimbus."

"Google fired 28 employees for participating in a 10-hour sit-in at the company's offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. They were protesting the company’s business ties with the Israeli government, as revealed by The Post.

The employees, who were in favor of Palestine, wore traditional Arab headscarves during the sit-in. They occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday and were fired on Wednesday after an internal investigation, according to Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security. He mentioned in a companywide memo that their behavior was unacceptable and disrupted the work of other employees.

Some donned traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California.

In New York, protesters occupied the 10th floor of Google’s offices in Manhattan's Chelsea section as part of a larger protest also involving the company’s Seattle offices, dubbed the "No Tech for Genocide Day of Action."

Rackow stated, “Behavior like this has no place in our workplace, and we will not tolerate it.” He emphasized that the employees' actions violated multiple company policies.

The fired employees were associated with a group called No Tech For Apartheid, critical of Google’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. The group posted videos of the protests, including the moment employees received final warnings and were arrested for trespassing.

The protesters demanded Google end a $1.2 billion contract, called “Project Nimbus,” providing cloud-computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military. Critics feared this technology could be used against Palestinians in Gaza.

When reached for comment, a Google spokesperson confirmed the firings.

The affected workers criticized Google for valuing its contract with the Israeli government over its employees. They accused Google executives of profiting from genocide.

An NYPD spokesperson confirmed the protest involved about 50 participants, with four arrests for trespassing. In California, around 80 participants protested, resulting in five arrests for trespassing.

“These protests were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

It’s unclear if all nine arrested employees were among those fired. Google had previously placed these employees on administrative leave and restricted their access to internal systems.

Last month, Google fired a software engineer who criticized an Israeli executive during a tech conference in New York.

A Google spokesperson, when contacted, confirmed the firings, stating they were part of a campaign by organizations and individuals outside Google."