Statement from the No Tech For Apartheid Campaign on Google’s retaliation against and firing of Google Cloud Software Engineer who disrupted the Israeli AI and surveillance MindTheTech Conference.
No Tech For Apartheid Campaign
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On Monday, a brave Google Cloud engineer spoke up against the corporation’s complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. A video of the worker standing up for their rights went viral, with some reposts reaching up to 8 million views and generating widespread global support, including from Palestinians in Gaza. Three days later, Google fired this worker.
Google has engaged in a clear cut act of retaliation against its own worker for speaking up about the terms and conditions of their labor.
This is the first immediate firing of a worker after a public, brave act of employee dissent against Project Nimbus, Google and Amazon’s shared $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli military and government. This is the second worker associated with the No Tech For Apartheid campaign that Google has retaliated against for organizing within their workplace, and the latest in a series of cases in which Google has retaliated against workers for speaking up about the corporation’s ethical malpractice in a range of business decisions.
While touting the importance of “democratic values” in the workplace, Google is shutting down free speech and silencing debate and dissent among workers within the company.
Google’s aims are clear: The corporation is trying to silence workers to hide their moral failings. Google is enabling the world’s first AI-powered genocide through Project Nimbus. Through this contract, Google and Amazon are aiding and abetting the Israeli apartheid state and genocidal campaign in Gaza against Palestinians. Instead of cleaning up its own house, and dropping its contract with a genocidal regime, Google is punching down on its own workers. For almost three years, thousands of Google & Amazon workers have organized against the companies’ contracts with the Israeli government and military, with no response from management or executives.
As a Cloud Software Engineer on critical technology that enables Project Nimbus to run on sovereign Israeli data centers, this worker spoke from a place of deep personal concern about the direct, violent impacts of their labor. They spoke from a deep belief that truly ethical engineering must account for the impact on communities around the world.
While terminating this brave worker, Google HR asked how they were feeling. The worker replied: “proud to be fired for refusing to be complicit in genocide.”
For press inquires: jane@justicespeaks.us
