Google fires engineer who disrupted NYC Israel tech event claiming company is ‘powering genocide’

Shannon Thaler
·3 min read
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A Google engineer who disrupted a New York City tech conference earlier this week by standing up and proclaiming that he refuses “to build technology that powers genocide” has reportedly been fired.

“I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid or surveillance,” the engineer shouted in the middle of a lecture at the “Mind the Tech” conference in New York City on Monday — while Barak Regev, managing director of Google Israel, was delivering a lecture.

“Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger,” added the unidentified worker, referring to Google’s $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud services to the Israeli military and government.

An unidentified Google Cloud engineer who disrupted a co-worker during a conference in New York City Monday to declare that he refuses “to build technology that powers genocide” has since been fired. Caroline Haskins/X
An unidentified Google Cloud engineer who disrupted a co-worker during a conference in New York City Monday to declare that he refuses “to build technology that powers genocide” has since been fired. Caroline Haskins/X

The staffer — who donned an orange Google T-shirt during the pro-Israel conference — was subsequently fired, according to CNBC.

It wasn’t immediately clear who the staffer was, or when he had been axed from the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm.

A spokesperson for Google confirmed the worker’s ousting to The Post, noting that “the employee was terminated for violating our policies.”

“This behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue,” the Google rep added.

The incident during Regev’s keynote speech wasn’t the only time this week that Google found itself at the center of controversy over events in the Middle East.

Ahead of an International Women’s Day Summit in Silicon Valley on Thursday, Google’s employee message board was flooded with comments from staffers about the company’s contract with Israel, which provides an “all-encompassing cloud solution” to government agencies, including its defense establishment, according to CNBC.

Google’s involvement with foreign militaries has been a divisive topic among its global workforce of over 260,000 since at least 2018, when the Department fo Defense signed off an artificial intelligence initiative with Google dubbed Project Maven.

Google has since withdrawn from Project Maven, but signed Project Nimbus into effect with the Israeli government in April 2021.

Tensions over the deal have heightened since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists launched an attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 Israeli soldiers and citizens and taking hundreds of others hostage.

Google’s $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud services to the Israeli military and government, dubbed “Project Nimbus,” has been a source of controversy amon the tech behemoth’s workers. REUTERS
Google’s $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud services to the Israeli military and government, dubbed “Project Nimbus,” has been a source of controversy amon the tech behemoth’s workers. REUTERS

In the ensuing months, Israel has conducted a military campaign in Gaza that has thus far claimed the lives of an estimated 30,000 Palestinians.

In November, a group of Google staffers who included “anti-Zionist” Jews, Muslims, Palestinians and Arabs circulated an open letter demanding that management cancel the Nimbus contract due to what it calls “providing material support to this genocide.”