Protests in US over Google's cloud technology contract with Israel government

Protests were held outside the Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco, California on Tuesday (August 29) against the American tech giant's contract with the Israeli government to provide cloud services for the country's public sector and military. The protesters are part of the "No Tech for Apartheid" campaign, a coalition of current and former Google workers as well as community members and other activists.

According to a report by the news agency Reuters, around 100 people attended the protest and it was not known how many of them were from Google.

"We have more reasons than ever to recommit ourselves to organizing to ensure that tech companies like Google, based right here in the Bay and in the United States, cannot continue profiting off of and powering Israeli apartheid," Dani Noble, an organiser with Jewish Voice for Peace, said on Tuesday.

"These workers have been organizing for two years because they don't want their labour to be used to power Israeli apartheid and violations of Palestinian human rights," Noble added.

What is Project Nimbus?

Signed in May 2021, Project Nimbus is a multi-year project intended to provide a comprehensive solution for the provision of cloud services to the government, the defence system and other groups in the economy, as per the Israeli finance ministry.

The four phases of the project include the acquisition and construction of cloud infrastructure, formulating government policy for migrating to the cloud, integration and migration, and control and optimisation of cloud activity.

Amazon Web Services is also a part of the project.

Protesters have said the cloud technology was being used against Palestinians, including for surveillance, and racial segregation.

"As long as people are aware of this contract, there is nothing more powerful than people power. So what I would urge to people who aren't the decision makers in Google and people who don't make those top line decisions of keeping or dropping project numbers is that they should talk to their colleagues about it," Rami Abdelkarim, a Bay Area organiser, said during Tuesday's protest.

(With inputs from agencies)

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