Google Fires 50 Employees Involved in Protests Against Contract with Israel

Controversy Over Dismissal Notice for Employee Who Watched Incident
Sundar Pichai CEO "No Political Debate"

Google is facing controversy after firing 50 employees linked to an internal organization that recently protested against a contract with Israel. Some employees who claim they only watched the protests without participating have expressed opposition to the dismissals, raising the possibility of legal disputes.

According to CNN on the 23rd (local time), the anti-Israel group within Google called 'No Tech For Apartheid (NTFA)' issued a statement revealing that Google has fired 50 employees so far for alleged involvement with their group. The organization occupied offices and staged sit-in protests at Google buildings in New York and Sunnyvale, California on the 16th, with leaders arrested on charges of trespassing.

They protested against Google's participation in 'Project Nimbus,' an Israeli government cloud system development project. Earlier, Google, along with Amazon, signed a contract with the Israeli government in 2021 to carry out Project Nimbus. The project includes AI-based identification technology, raising concerns that it could be used to surveil and oppress Palestinian residents.

NTFA stated, "The company is now targeting all workers who were physically near the protest site, including those who did not participate in the protests at all," emphasizing, "We will not stop fighting." Some workers claiming unfair treatment are expected to pursue legal action.

Google insists that all dismissed employees were directly involved in the protests. A Google spokesperson said, "The investigation into the incident is complete, and employees directly involved in disruptive activities have been terminated," adding, "We emphasize again that all dismissed individuals were definitely involved in disruptive activities within the company, and we have carefully confirmed this multiple times."

Although the protests against the contract with Israel have somewhat subsided, the controversy is unlikely to fade easily as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. Opposition to Israeli military support is growing not only among Google employees but also across the United States and beyond. As the conflict between Israel and Hamas surpasses seven months, civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip have exceeded 34,000, increasing significantly.

In particular, Google employees are known to strongly oppose the use of advanced technology for attacking humans or warfare. Previously, due to employee opposition, Google halted the 'Maven' project in 2018, a joint project with the U.S. Department of Defense. Maven was a project to analyze drone-collected footage using AI to identify enemy intelligence activities. At that time, Google employees opposed the use of technology to harm humans or be deployed in war.