By Mary Owen
April 20, 2024

New York — Google workers held a sit-in at their New York City workplace on April 16. They demanded the tech giant stop providing technology for Zionist genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and cancel Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint Google-Amazon cloud contract with the Israeli government and military.

The sit-in was organized by No Tech for Apartheid (NOTA), which held simultaneous actions at Google offices in Seattle and Sunnyvale, California.

A Palestinian tech worker told the cheering New York crowd: “This is the first sit-in at a major tech company, and it won’t be the last. The labor movement and the student movement are the heartbeat of liberation.”

The Google workers’ sit-in took place as a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” unfolded at Columbia University and shortly after revelations that the Zionist occupation forces use metadata from an artificial intelligence (AI) program called Lavender to target and kill Palestinians, including children, in Gaza.

Some 200 supporters gathered outside Google’s New York office to show solidarity with the workers inside. Chants of “Google, Google, you can’t hide, your tech’s for apartheid!” and “Not another push, not another line, no more code for genocide!” rang out as the crowd grew. Workers from Amazon, Meta and current and former Google workers were joined by activists from Jewish Voice for Peace, Al-Awda, Workers World Party and other groups at the hours-long speakout.

The Google workers made these demands: Drop the Project Nimbus cloud and AI contract now; stop harassment, intimidation, and censorship of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers; and stop retaliation and doxxing of workers raising workplace health and safety concerns caused by Project Nimbus — which has prompted workers to quit rather than see their labor used for genocide.

“Cloud technology should be used in libraries, health care and elsewhere to protect users and the planet,” said former Googler Eddie Hatfield. “Instead, it has become a deadly exchange of technology used against the Palestinians and, from there, the world via the cloud. It has to stop.” Hatfield, a software engineer who uses they/them pronouns, was fired in March 2024 after disrupting a conference speech by the managing director of Google Israel.

In retaliation for the sit-in, Google fired 28 workers and ordered nine workers arrested for “trespassing.” Yet even if it means putting their jobs on the line, NOTA’s written statement to the April 16 rally was clear: “We will not stop organizing until Google stops profiting from genocide.” For more information on this struggle, visit NOTA at NoTechForApartheid.com.