Google workers protesting against the company’s collaboration with Israel got arrested on Tuesday. They were taken into custody from different places, including the New York City and Sunnyvale California offices.
Their protest happened during a time of increasing tensions between Israel and Iran worldwide. This isn’t the first time Google employees have spoken out against the company’s involvement in certain projects linked to the Israeli government.
A spokesperson for the protesters, Jane Chung, mentioned that nine employees were arrested at both locations, as reported by The Washington Post. Some New York City police officers warned the protesters they would be arrested if they didn’t leave.
As per the report, Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson said that the protesting employees were put on administrative leave, and their access to Google’s systems was revoked.
The protesters were urging Google to back out of a $1.2 billion contract called Nimbus with Amazon, which involves providing cloud services and data centers to the Israeli government.
Some of the protesters knew they might lose their jobs because of their actions. Zelda Montes, a software engineer at Google’s YouTube, admitted she could be fired for protesting.
She said, “We often ignore the impact of our work on the world. I’ve been waiting for others to join me in risking their jobs.”
Protests have been happening more frequently over the last seven months because of the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip. In early March, Google fired an employee for protesting during a speech by a top Google executive in Israel.
The contract being protested was made with the entire Israeli government. Some tech workers worry their work could be used for military purposes because the contract says companies can’t refuse services to specific parts of the Israeli government.
Time Magazine recently reported that Google has been talking with Israel’s Defense Ministry. Amazon employees also joined the protests on Tuesday, opposing the contract with Israel.
