Pro-Palestine demonstration in California targets Google’s Nimbus Project
Pro-Palestine demonstrators in Palo Alto, California condemn Google’s Nimbus Project agreement with Israel and Gaza attacks, demanding justice for Palestine
In Palo Alto, California, a huge demonstration was held in support of Palestine, where over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,000 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Protesters carrying banners and Palestinian flags marched to the front of the municipal building, leaving children’s clothing and shoes to protest Google’s $1.2 billion Nimbus Project agreement with Israel and the attacks on Gaza.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Ray Westrick, one of the 28 people fired from their jobs after opposing the provision of technology to the Israeli government, also participated in the demonstration and delivered a speech.
Google fires 28 employees for protesting Israel cloud deal
Google has fired more than two dozen employees who protested this week against the company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. The workers were dismissed after an investigation found that they had staged protests inside Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California.
Protesters held banners that read “No More Genocide For Profit” and “We Stand with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers.”
“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,” a Google spokesperson stated.
Google’s Nimbus Project with Israeli government
Google’s Nimbus Project, a cloud computing endeavor with the Israeli government and military, has come under fire. Announced by the Israeli Finance Ministry in April 2021, the contract aims to provide “the government, the defense establishment, and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution.” Under this agreement, companies will establish local cloud sites to “keep information within Israel’s borders under strict security guidelines.”
According to a Google spokesperson, the contract covers workloads related to “finance, health care, transportation, and education,” emphasizing that it does not involve highly sensitive or classified information.
But the protests followed a report in Time magazine earlier this month, citing an internal company document, that Israel’s Ministry of Defense is a Google Cloud customer.
According to Time, the ministry has its own secure entry point to Google-provided computing infrastructure, which would allow it to store and process data, and access artificial intelligence services. Earlier this year, the ministry also sought consulting assistance from Google to expand its Google Cloud access.
The Google spokesperson said Google Cloud “supports numerous governments around the world, including the Israeli government.”
“We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy. This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” the spokesperson added.
