Google Workers Protest Israeli Military Contract As Ex-Intern Killed In Airstrike

Many workers gathered on Tuesday evening at Google’s New York City campus to denounce Project Nimbus, which provides services to Israel’s military, and pay tribute to Mai Ubeid, a young woman and intern software engineer who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip along with her whole family. 

Hundreds of former and current Google and Amazon workers gathered at Google’s New York City campus to protest the death of an ex-intern. They also slammed their employers for contracts with the Israeli military.

Project Nimbus is a cloud computing project of the Israeli government and Israeli military. Google and Amazon provide the Israeli government and its military with cloud and machine learning services.

What did Google workers say?

Many Google employees have argued that their employer is providing tools to Israeli authorities that help what human rights groups call apartheid imposed on Palestinians by Israel. 

Google workers held demonstrations to bring more attention to Ubeid’s killing. However, Google has declined to publicly or internally acknowledge Ubeid’s killing. 

According to a report by The Guardian, many employees condemned Google. Mohammad Khatami, a Google software engineer, told The Guardian that the silence of the company and the chief executive, Sundar Pichai, on Ubeid’s death was a “betrayal in the purest sense of the word.”

Another worker said, “Shame on Pichai and shame on Google.” Google and Amazon workers, including those behind the No Tech for Apartheid campaign, also protested on Tuesday.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has affected the lives of people in the region. The conflict has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. Israelis and Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and Israel are facing the consequences of the conflict. 

UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) has said that human rights violations against children and women are rampant because of the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

Hamas militants have kidnapped civilians, including women. Many women have been taken hostage by the Hamas militants. 

In October, an unconscious body of a German woman was paraded naked by Hamas in a truck during the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

The conflict has started again. The United Nations has said that renewed war between Israel and Hamas is “catastrophic” and a “nightmare.”