Amazon fires employee for exposing company’s support for 'Israel'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Bloomberg News
Today 12:50

Amazon terminates Palestinian engineer Ahmed Shahrour for protesting its Project Nimbus contract with "Israel".

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Two men hold up a banner and signs along Market Street during a tech workers' protest against Google and Amazon for their contracts with the Israeli government in San Francisco, on September 8, 2022 (AP)

Ahmed Shahrour, a 29-year-old Palestinian software engineer, was terminated by Amazon on Monday after publicly protesting the company’s role in supporting Israeli government and military operations through Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud-computing and AI contract.

Project Nimbus and corporate support for 'Israel'

Project Nimbus involves Amazon and Google providing cloud-computing services to Israeli government and military entities. The project enables military operations that violate human rights in Palestine, particularly during the recent genocidal war on Gaza that killed thousands before a ceasefire took effect this past week.

Shahrour’s activism has drawn attention to the role of US tech companies in sustaining occupation policies and military attacks against Palestinian civilians.

Shahrour’s activism, protests

Shahrour, employed at Amazon’s Whole Foods Market division in Seattle, was suspended after posting messages on internal Slack channels criticizing Amazon’s ties to "Israel". He later organized protests and distributed flyers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.

He was also among seven current and former tech workers who staged a protest at Microsoft President Brad Smith’s office in August, demanding accountability for software sales to "Israel". The protesters were arrested and later released. Following these demonstrations, restricted some software usage by an Israeli military unit.

Shahrour emphasized in an internal note: “Amazon is not a neutral observer. We are active participants.”

Corporate response, termination

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser claimed that the company does not tolerate “discrimination, harassment, or threatening behavior” and said Shahrour’s actions violated policies intended to “threaten, intimidate, coerce or interfere with” colleagues and senior leaders.

Employee coalitions and activists condemned the firing as retaliation against a Palestinian voice challenging corporate complicity in Israeli military operations.

No Tech for Apartheid campaign

Amazon and Google have faced sustained criticism from the No Tech for Apartheid campaign, which opposes technology provision to the Israeli occupation's military. American tech companies are enabling human rights violations in Gaza and other Palestinian territories, as occupation forces are using software and programs provided by these companies to carry out atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

Shahrour’s termination is seen by supporters as part of a broader pattern of silencing employee activism in US tech firms that challenge corporate involvement in occupation and violence against Palestinians.

Google complicit in spreading Israeli propaganda

Earlier, an investigation by Drop Site News revealed that Google is engaged in a six-month, $45 million agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to promote propaganda through digital platforms. The contract identifies Google as a “key entity” in advancing the prime minister’s messaging strategy.

The contract surfaced just hours after "Israel" announced a complete blockade on food, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian supplies entering Gaza on March 2, 2025. According to government records reviewed by Drop Site News, the prime minister’s advertising bureau soon initiated a vast messaging drive, deploying influencers and investing heavily in paid advertising on Google, YouTube, Meta, and X.

One widely promoted video on YouTube, published by the foreign ministry, declared: “There is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie.” The video, which has amassed over six million views, was amplified through the secretive $45 million campaign run with Google’s advertising arm, Display & Video 360.