Google staffers arrested, placed on leave after 10-hour protest over $1.2B Israel contract
Several Google employees were arrested and placed on administrative leave late Tuesday after staging 10-hour sit-ins at offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the company’s $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel.
The pro-Palestinian employees, who are affiliated with a group called No Tech For Apartheid, posted several videos and livestreams of the protests — including the moment they were issued final warnings and arrested by local police for trespassing.
A third protest took place in Seattle.
The shocking protests included a complete takeover of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in Sunnyvale by workers wearing traditional Arab headscarves.
Kurian’s custom-made, framed Golden State Warriors jersey was visible on the office wall in the background of the livestream.
A total of nine protesters were arrested.
Employees who participated in the protest are already facing disciplinary action.
A Google spokesperson said the Tuesday protests “were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google.”
“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and we will investigate and take action,” the Google spokesperson said in a statement.
“These employees were put on administrative leave and their access to our systems was cut,” the spokesperson said. “After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”
An NYPD spokesperson said the Tuesday protest “involved approximately 50 participants” in total and confirmed “four arrests were made for trespassing inside the Google building.”
The protests come as Google has contended with employee unrest related to the Israel-Hamas war for months.
Last month, Google fired a software engineer who publicly blasted one of the company’s Israel-based executives during a tech conference in New York City.
BREAKING— @google also orders for arrest of of its own workers in SUNNYVALE who sat in for 10 hours at @googlecloud CEO @thomasortk’s personal office, demanding google cut Project Nimbus, the company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel.
arrests were caught on our livestream pic.twitter.com/pgLe4gkybY— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 17, 2024
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said the protest in California “consisted of around 80 participants.”
A total of five protesters who refused to leave the Google office were “arrested without incident for criminal trespassing,” booked and released, a spokesperson added.
A representative for the protesters did not immediately return a request for comment on the arrests.
The protesters have demanded that Google withdraw from the $1.2 billion “Project Nimbus” contract — in which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services provide cloud-computing and artificial intelligence services for the Israeli government and military.
Critics are concerned that the technology is being weaponized against Palestinians in Gaza.
Activists within Google’s workforce have ramped up their criticism of the deal in recent months during Israel’s war against Hamas. Israel launched an offensive after Hamas staged a surprise cross-border attack on civilians last Oct. 7.
UPDATE—NYC/Sunnyvale @google workers enter HOUR 9 of sit-in
workers will NOT leave @ThomasOrTK’s office or GOOGLE NYC HQ until nimbus is dropped or they’re arrested
600+ PPL STILL ON SUNNYVALE SITIN LIVESTREAM — JOIN US- https://t.co/uUiPbr3oDz pic.twitter.com/kRzCHj7GRQ— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 17, 2024
On Tuesday, the official No Tech For Apartheid account tweeted that the employees would “refuse to leave until Google stops powering the genocide in Gaza.”
