Protesters wearing shirts with fake blood lined the streets of Google’s Mountain View headquarters this morning during one of its largest conferences, demanding the Bay Area tech giant divest from projects that support Palestinian genocide.
The peaceful protest drew roughly 100 people and disrupted Google’s I/O conference — its biggest developer conference — from 8:30-11 a.m. Protesters locked themselves together and blocked off one of the event’s entrances, calling for the company to stop funding Project Nimbus. The $1.2 billion contract gives the Israeli government access to cloud computing services and was formed in collaboration with Amazon in 2021.
Participating activist groups, including No Tech for Genocide, the Palestinian Youth Movement Bay Area and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area, said that technology leads to the deaths of innocent Palestinians through artificial intelligence. Other groups included Bay Area Palestine Solidarity, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Anti Police-Terror Project and Party for Socialism and Liberation Bay Area.
The protesters kept their distance from security guards who blocked them from going onto the campus or into the event.
There were no pro-Israeli counter-protesters at Google.
Ariel Koren, a former Google employee, spoke up about Project Nimbus more than a year ago and said she was ousted from the company in retaliation. Google fired about 50 employees last month in what some said was retaliation for voicing concerns about the project, according to CNN.
“We will be here every day and not allow the leaders who have blood on their hands from fueling and profiting from this genocide to have one moment of quiet and peace until this contract ends and Google discontinues its ruthless pursuit of military contracts,” she told San José Spotlight.
Google did not respond to requests for comment.
@sanjosespotlight Protesters wearing shirts with fake blood lined the streets of Google’s Mountain View headquarters this morning during one of its largest conferences, demanding the Bay Area tech giant divest from projects that support Palestinian genocide. The peaceful protest drew roughly 100 people and disrupted Google’s I/O conference — its biggest developer conference — from 8:30-11 a.m. Protesters locked themselves together and blocked off one of the event’s entrances, calling for the company to stop funding Project Nimbus. The $1.2 billion contract gives the Israeli government access to cloud computing services and was formed in collaboration with Amazon in 2021. Read more at SanJoseSpotlight.com #projectnimbus #google #googlecloud #surveillance #israel #palestine #siliconvalley
The rally drew honks from passing motorists as protesters pounded drums and clutched signs that read “Don’t be evil, drop Project Nimbus” and “There can be no peace without freedom.” Participants chanted “G is for genocide” across the street from where conference attendees lined up.
Mira Zyra, an I/O attendee and website developer, said she didn’t know the protests were going to happen, but that they made her curious about the movement.
“It’s a bit odd and uncomfortable,” she told San José Spotlight. “I feel compelled to learn about what this is in depth because it seems very relevant to everything I’m close to business-wise.”
After the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian armed group Hamas that claimed the lives of roughly 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 hostages, according to the Wall Street Journal, Israel retaliated by bombing Gaza and killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians, according to Reuters.
The protest adds to events happening around the Bay Area in support of the Palestinian territories. Students and faculty at San Jose State University set up an encampment on campus Monday calling for the college to divest from Israel.
Rami Abdelkarim, member of the Palestinian Youth Movement Bay Area for roughly three years, said he joined the Google protests because the cause is personal to him. His grandparents were expelled from Palestine during the Nakba in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced.
“It means the world that so many people are involved in the Palestinian movements. We know this is not a struggle that started yesterday or on Oct. 7,” he told San José Spotlight. “Palestinians continue to resist their occupiers, resist under brutal occupation that murders them, that throws them in jail.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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