Google Employees Arrested Following Protest Over Israeli Military Contract

Google is facing internal pushback over its business dealings with Israel as workers staged protests at the company's New York and Sunnyvale, California locations. 

The Details: Employees affiliated with the organization "No Tech For Apartheid" demand that Google pull out from Project Nimbus — a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government to provide AI and cloud computing services. The protesting employees also insist on an end to alleged harassment, intimidation, and censorship of Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian employees. Four New York and five Sunnyvale employees have been arrested for trespassing following sit-ins at their respective offices, and several employees were placed on administrative leave.

Key Quote: “Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and we will investigate and take action,” a Google spokesperson said. “Google is enabling and profiting from Israel’s AI-powered genocide through Project Nimbus, their $1B cloud contract with Israel,” No Tech For Apartheid said in a statement, adding, “Google workers do not want their labor to power Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

How The Media Covered It: Outlets supportive of Israel, including American right-rated outlets, tended to characterize the protesters as “anti-Israel” or “pro-Palestinian”; other headlines simply said the employees protested an Israeli military contract. This trend did not necessarily align with bias ratings; for instance, tech magazine Wired (Center bias) described protests over “a cloud contract with Israel's government,” but The Jerusalem Post (Center bias), an Israeli newspaper, described “anti-Israel workers occupying offices for hours.” This summary was developed with the help of AllSides' AI technology.