No Tech for Apartheid: Google Workers Arrested for Protesting Company’s $1.2B Contract with Israel

Democracy Now! speaks with two of the Google employees who were arrested staging sit-ins on Tuesday at the company’s offices in New York City and in Sunnyvale, California, to protest the tech giant’s work with the Israeli government. Organized by the group No Tech for Apartheid, the protesters are demanding Google withdraw from Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli military. “Google execs basically chose to arrest workers for speaking out against the use of our technology to power the first AI-powered genocide,” says Google software engineer Mohammad Khatami, who was arrested in New York. Google worker-organizer Ray Westrick, who was arrested occupying CEO Thomas Kurian’s office, says “more people are willing to organize and risk their jobs in order to take a stand against complicity in genocide.” We also speak with No Tech for Apartheid organizer and former Google worker Gabriel Schubiner, who calls on the tech industry to divest from Google and Amazon services. “Technology workers actually have a lot of power to shift this paradigm and to remove technology from this deep complicity with the Israeli occupation,” Schubiner says.

[ljt]

This tech will be used against anyone who speaks out against Israel.

Not just Palestinians.

[mymyankeemarrero]

And today they have all been fired....28

[rosyadasulaiman]

We salute your integrity and principled stand

[mohsinmmir]

Google is another company that needs to be down sized

[hpE-zt.i]

FREEDOM of speech in America, where???

[DartLuke]

When Google banned Trump and his supporters, you were fine. Now enjoy your own medicine.

[berniediedricks]

❤️🇿🇦South Africa 30yrs democracy free from Apartheid, THANK YOU WORLD! ❤❤❤

[emiliobello]

Many kids have always wanted to work for Google, now in these days they would reconsider

[x-shift]

It’s not about Palestine or Israel. It’s about the fact that they’re paying you quite handsomely to do what engineers do and not only were you not doing it you were impeding your coworkers from doing theirs as well as making them feel unsafe. It’s amazing how that doesn’t register in their minds.

[tanmin]

Can we protest being US citizens since our tax money goes to this war as well?

[IloveJinnah]

Freedom of speech is selective to assist the elites.

[Vbelle]

Thank you for posting this. I never would have known.

[nonisidharta]

With the current job market, they are replaceable.

[mabyvideos]

In the meantime the leaders of Hamas ( Ismail Haniyeh ) are happily enjoying the safe and tranquil rich life in Qatar

[birdiemiller]

Google is guilty of so much more! Those interested: DR Congo, Africa cobalt mines; where young children have been used brutally to mine for cobalt, for decades. And, not all blame lays with local African government, which can be bought/bribed for 100m or so.

[hb]

Freedom of speech is not too free. It was meant to do something good. Not telling your company to fire us

[victoriapowell]

I saw them offered three times to leave and avoid arrest and they refused so if you are willing to risk your job then you also willing to sit in jail for what you believe in. But if I tell you to leave my property you need to leave or you will be arrested. It’s real simple.

[KBfin...]

Google employees are fortunate to express their voices because they live in the Western world and work for Western companies. This is not the case in other parts of the world, particularly in the Arab world, where even employees of this media cannot freely express democratic ideas in the country where the media is based.

[bfrandsen]

Arrested and terminated. Now you will be blacklisted too.

[jpnu]

You are in a free country, go work somewhere else and respect others' work space.