“Googlers against genocide” protesters were arrested on Tuesday after holding a 10-hour sit-in against the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government.
Jane Chung, a spokesperson for the protesters, said in a press release that nine employees at offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California, were arrested during Tuesday’s sit-in.
“Last night, Google made the decision to arrest us, the company’s own workers – instead of engaging with our concerns about Project Nimbus, the company’s $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with Israel,” a statement from the arrested employees said.
“Those of us sitting in Thomas Kurian’s office repeatedly requested to speak with the Google Cloud CEO, but our requests were denied,” they said.
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The protesters said that the company was telling “bare-faced lies” after Google released a statement saying that Project Nimbus was “not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”
“We will not stay silent in light of Google’s bare-faced lies. Hundreds and thousands of Google workers have joined No Tech for Apartheid’s call for the company to Drop Project Nimbus,” they said.
“Despite Google’s attempts to silence us and disregard our concerns, we will persist,” they said. “We will continue to organize and fight until Google drops Project Nimbus and stops aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide and apartheid state in Palestine.”
A video of the New York City arrests, obtained by Fox News Digital, showed New York Police Department (NYPD) officers calming walking into the Google headquarters and informing the employees that they would be arrested if they did not leave.
“Everyone, we’ve repeatedly asked you to leave and your access to corporate property has been removed, and you’ve been put on administrative leave,” an officer with the NYPD said. “We’re asking you to leave for the last time.”
“We will not be leaving,” a protester is heard saying.
Police told the employees that it would be a “non-issue” if they agreed to get up and leave the Google offices.
“I’m with the NYPD, and I’m wearing a body-worn camera,” the officer said. “Listen, we’ll let you walk out the doors right now, it’s a non-issue if you’re willing to go.”
“If not, you’ll be arrested for trespassing,” the officer said.
“Yeah, we’re not willing to leave,” the protester said.
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Google employees were also arrested inside the tech company’s Sunnyvale, California headquarters following a sit-in.
Demonstrators were arrested after they occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian to read their list of demands.
The employees also demanded that the company stop “the harassment, intimidation, bullying, silencing, and censorship of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Googlers.”
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They also demanded that Google address “health and safety issues” in the workplace, which arose from the “mental health consequences of working at a company that is using their labor to enable a genocide.”
William Van Der Laar, a Google Cloud Software Engineer in Sunnyvale, California, said that employees’ “mental health and well-being” suffered after learning about Project Nimbus.
“As a Software Engineer in Google Cloud, it is horrifying to think that the code I write could be used by the Israeli Military in the first ever AI powered genocide, Van Der Laar said. “As workers, our mental health and well-being are increasingly suffering as we learn details of Project Nimbus and watch the atrocities committed against Palestinians in Gaza unfold.”
Hasan Ibraheem, a Google Software Engineer in New York City, alleged that Google is “implicated in the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
“By providing cloud and AI infrastructure to the Israeli military, Google is directly implicated in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” he said. “It’s my responsibility to do everything I can to end this contract even while Google pretends nothing is wrong.
“So many people don’t realize how complicit their own company is. It’s our job to make sure they do,” Ibraheem said.
Mohammad Khatami, a Google Software Engineer in New York City, said that the sit-ins came after Google “ignored” employees’ demands.
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“Google has ignored our demands, stifled internal discussion, openly lied, and committed flagrant acts of retaliation against workers merely for speaking up against the company’s military contract with the genocidal and apartheid regime of Israel,” Khatami said. “Project Nimbus is a major workplace health and safety concern for Googlers.”
In a press release, Alphabet Workers Union, which represents approximately 1,200 Google employees, said that they “deplore” the company’s decision to arrest and put employees who protested on leave.
“Yesterday, Google workers in New York City, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, California, engaged in [a] peaceful protest against Google’s participation in Project Nimbus, a cloud computing contract between Google, Amazon, and the Israeli government and military,” the statement said.
“The protests culminated in nine Google workers being arrested and forcibly removed from company premises,” they said.
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Alphabet Workers Union said that approximately 24 employees were placed on leave for protesting.
“We deplore Google’s decision to have its own workers arrested and arbitrarily placed on leave for participating in a peaceful protest, rather than engage in substantive dialogue about their concerns,” the group said.
FOX Business s has reached out to Google for comment.