Google fires 28 employees for protesting against $1.2bn contract

Tech giant Google has fired 28 employees for protesting over the company’s contract with Israel to provide them with cloud and artificial intelligence services amid an ongoing genocide in Palestine, NBC reported.

The demonstrators were protesting as part of the group "No Tech for Apartheid," which has long opposed "Project Nimbus."

Nimbus is the name of the project under which google has signed a joint $1.2 billion contract with Amazon to provide services to Israel.

According to Google spokesperson, a "small number" of employees "disrupted" a few Google locations, but the protests are "part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organisations and people who largely don't work at Google."

"After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety," the Google spokesperson said.

"We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed."

Israel is one of "numerous" governments for which Google provides cloud computing services, the Google spokesperson said.

"This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services," the Google spokesperson said.