Google fires staffer who 'refused to build technology that powers genocide'

Project Nimbus includes an over $1 billion contract between Google and Amazon, and the Israeli government and military, to provide Tel Aviv with cloud computing services. (Photo/AA)

Google has fired an engineer who staged a pro-Palestinian protest during a company keynote address in New York City, according to a report.

“I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid or surveillance," the Google Cloud employee can be heard shouting in a video that has since gone viral online.

The employee staged the protest as Google Israel chief Barak Regev was addressing an industry conference on Monday.

"Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger," he yelled as security escorted him out of the area. "No cloud apartheid."

A Google spokesperson told media that the employee was terminated for "interfering with an official company-sponsored event.”

"This behaviour is not okay, regardless of the issue, and the employee was terminated for violating our policies," Google spokesperson said without specifying which policies the former employee violated.

This week, over 600 Google employees penned an internal letter to Google's marketing leadership demanding the tech company drop its sponsorship of the Mind the Tech forum where Regev spoke, according to the tech-focused Wired news website. The gathering is an event meant to highlight advances within the Israeli tech industry.

"Please withdraw from Mind the Tech, issue an apology, and stand with Googlers and customers who are despairing over the overwhelming loss of life in Gaza; we need Google to do better," the letter said.

Project Nimbus

Project Nimbus has long been decried by pro-Palestinian advocates, including those within Google's ranks. It includes an over $1 billion contract between Google and Amazon, and the Israeli government and military, to provide Tel Aviv with cloud computing services.

A 2021 open letter from Google and Amazon employees published in the Guardian decried the contract, saying it "will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueler and deadlier for Palestinians."

"This technology allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel's illegal settlements on Palestinian land," said the letter, which was signed by 90 workers at Google and over 300 at Amazon at the time.

"We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," it added.

Those voices appear to ha