A sit-in by two Google and Amazon workers in New York: Ibraheem and Montes tells them to stop and ask them to leave
Google and Amazon workers protested outside company offices in 2022 after The Intercept published documents showing the contract includes AI technology such as video analysis. The protesting tech workers say such capabilities could be used by Israel’s security apparatus to harm Palestinians.
The death toll from the army’s operation in Gaza reached more than 34,000 Palestinians on Tuesday. The military offensive started after the killing of 1,100 Israelis by Hamas.
Project Nimbus has been the target of protests by Google and Amazon workers for years. A campaign group called No Tech for Apartheid—which combines tech workers from the two the Muslim and Jewish-led activist groups MPower Change and Jewish Voice for Peace—formed in 2021 after details about the cloud contract became public.
Software engineers Hasan Ibraheem and Zelda Montes are being held in New York. Two workers with the same name were identified on a speaker-phone call by their first names, and were with protesters outside of their New York office.
The sit-in by workers from the tech giant began in New York and ended in California, where nine workers were removed by police.
“We will not be leaving,” a protesting worker replies. A man in uniform then introduces the officers as NYPD and delivers a final ultimatum, saying the workers have a last chance to walk out freely. “If not, you can be arrested for trespass,” he says. The protesters were put in handcuffs by police officers when they refused to leave.
Google fired workers over the past week of protests against Project Nimbus: a counterexample to Google’s breach of US legal protections
Google’s workforce comprises the vast majority of employees of parent Alphabet, which reported a headcount of more than 180,000 at the end of 2023. Protesters who participated in Tuesday’s protest are not the only ones who have support within the company.
Jane Chung, a spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid—the coalition of tech workers and Muslim- and Jewish-led activist groups MPower Change and Jewish Voice for Peace that organized the protests—says that some workers who were fired were involved in much less provocative action than those who occupied offices.
She said that some had simply attended the protest and gotten a t-shirt from the organizers. Others were standing near the protesters.
Zelda Montes, a now-former YouTube software engineer who says they were arrested after occupying Google’s New York office for more than ten hours, accuses the company of breaching US legal protections for workers.
Google fired twenty-eight employees Wednesday after they participated in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel’s government that also includes Amazon.
