A dozen Google employees were arrested at the company’s offices because they protested against cooperation with the Israeli government.
About said Washington Post.
On Tuesday evening, Google employees organized a sit-in protest against the corporation’s cooperation with the Israeli government at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California.
According to one of the protesters, nine employees were arrested in both offices.
The protesters entered the offices around 14:00, vowing to stay there until Google terminates its contract to provide cloud services and data centers to the Israeli government.
A video obtained by The Washington Post shows police officers entering the Google office and calmly telling the protesters that they will be arrested if they do not leave.
But the employees refuse, after which the police ask them to turn around and put their hands behind their backs.
«Physically interfering with the work of other employees and preventing them from entering our premises is a clear violation of our policy, and we will investigate,» said Google spokesperson Bailey Thomson.
As a result, the company put the protesters on «administrative leave» and took away all their passes. According to the company, the security guards were deployed after they refused to leave the premises.
The contract, known as Nimbus, was signed back in 2021. But dissatisfaction has grown strongly only in the last 7 months.
Employees have already sent out emails and letters to colleagues, protested outside the company’s offices, and blocked traffic on a major New York City street.
In early March, Google fired an employee who stood up in protest during a speech by the top manager of Google’s Israeli office.
Employees are outraged that the results of their work can be used for military purposes, because under the terms of the agreement, Google and Amazon employees cannot refuse to provide certain services to government agencies.
Prior to that, some Amazon employees at a shareholder meeting demanded a report that «customers’ use of surveillance, computer vision or cloud storage products and services does not violate international humanitarian law».