Google, Amazon employees protest deal with “Israel”

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Under the slogan “No Tech for Apartheid," Google and Amazon employees protested outside company offices in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday, urging the tech giants to cancel their $1.2 billion Project Nimbus contract.

The contract aims to supply “Israel” and its occupation forces with artificial intelligence and cloud computing technology. 

The protesters believe that the contract will enable “Israel” to expand its illegal settlements by supporting data collection for the so-called “Israel Land Authority," according to organizers.

It is worth noting that videos showcasing the protest went viral on social media.

The organizers further stated that the contract between the two companies and the Israeli occupation "adds up to the policies of apartheid and suppression of Palestinians."

Seattle tech workers & community are joining SF, NYC, & Durham today in rallying in front of @Google & @amazon offices for #NoTechForApartheid. Tech workers don’t want their labor to be used to violate Palestinian rights, & community are standing w/ them! pic.twitter.com/Bfrwzjwjvb

— JVP-Seattle #notechforapartheid (@JVPSeattle) September 9, 2022

The campaign, which began last year, launched a petition with over 40,000 signatures calling on the companies to "stop doing business with the Israeli apartheid government and military."

The petition said: ''As the Israeli military bombed homes, clinics, and schools in Gaza and threatened to push Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem May 2021, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud executives signed a $1.22 billion contract to provide cloud technology to the Israeli government and military. By doing business with Israeli apartheid, Amazon and Google will make it easier for the Israeli government to surveil Palestinians and force them off their land.''

''We're heeding the call from over 1000 Google and Amazon workers to rise up against the contract, known as Project Nimbus. Technology should be used to bring people together, not enable apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and settler-colonialism.''

"Amazon and Google's collaboration with Israeli apartheid is part of a larger pattern of Big Tech fuelling state violence across the globe. Tech companies like Amazon and Google are the new war profiteers and have dismal human rights records. Amazon helps power ICE's deportation-detention machine, and partners with over 2,000 U.S. police departments to surveil and criminalize Black and brown communities through its doorbell camera Ring," the petition added.

''Technology can bring people together—but when these tools are used to harm communities, they make the world less safe for us all. That's why workers at Google and Amazon are urging their employers to walk their talk on human rights,'' it concluded.