Google terminates 28 employees for protesting Israeli cloud deal

Google’s cloud deal: Google announced on Thursday that it had dismissed 28 employees following their involvement in protests against the company's cloud contract with the Israeli government. Alphabet's unit stated that a minority of protesting employees disrupted work at unspecified office locations.

"Physically obstructing other employees' work and hindering their access to our facilities constitutes a clear violation of our policies and is entirely unacceptable behaviour," the company stated.

Google confirmed the completion of individual investigations, resulting in the termination of the 28 employees, and pledged to continue investigating and taking appropriate action.

In a Medium statement, Google employees associated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign condemned the terminations as a "blatant act of retaliation." They noted that some employees who did not directly participate in the protests were also among those fired.

The protesting group argues that Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract awarded to Google and Amazon.com in 2021 to provide cloud services to the Israeli government, supports the development of military tools by the Israeli government.

Google reiterated that the Nimbus contract "is not focused on highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."

Protests within Google are not unprecedented. In 2018, employees successfully pressured the company to cancel a contract with the US military, Project Maven, intended for analysing aerial drone imagery with potential military applications.

(With Reuters inputs)