Tech giant Google denounced anti-Israel protests on Tuesday at its corporate offices in New York City, where four were arrested out of about 50 activists, and in Sunnyvale, Calif., where five arrests were made among 80 or so activists.
“Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened,” Chris Rackow, Google vice president of global security, wrote in an internal memo noting that the demonstrators had taken over offices, vandalized property and interrupted those at work.
In response shortly, 28 employees declaring themselves a “Googler Against Genocide” on their black T-shirts lost their jobs.
The company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel—titled “Project Nimbus”—provides cloud-computing and artificial intelligence to the government and military.
“This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers,” a statement from No Tech for Apartheid, which had organized the protests, said of the firings.
Rackow said “we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behavior—up to and including termination.”
