Several Google employees were arrested and placed on leave late Tuesday after holding a 10-hour sit-in at offices in New York and Sunnyvale, Calif., to protest a $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel. .
Pro-Palestinian employees from a group called “No Tech For Aparttheid” have posted several videos and livestreams of the protests, including one where they received a final warning from local police for trespassing. This includes the moment he was arrested.
A third protest was held in Seattle.
The shocking protests included a complete takeover of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in Sunnyvale by workers wearing traditional Arab headscarves.
Kurian’s custom-framed Golden State Warriors jersey was reflected on the office wall in the background of the livestream.
A total of nine protesters were arrested.
Employees who took part in the protests have already been disciplined.
A Google spokesperson said Tuesday’s protests were “part of a long-standing campaign by primarily organizations and groups of people who do not work at Google.”
“Physically interfering with the work of other employees or preventing access to our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and we will investigate,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. We will take measures accordingly.”
“These employees have been placed on administrative leave and their access to our systems has been blocked,” the spokesperson said. “After refusing multiple requests to leave, law enforcement worked to remove them to ensure the security of the office.”
The protests come as Google has been battling for months with employee violence related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Last month, Google fired a software engineer who publicly criticized one of the company’s Israel-based executives during a technology conference in New York City.
A New York City Police Department spokesperson said a total of about 50 people participated in Tuesday’s protest and confirmed that “four people were arrested for trespassing inside the Google building.”
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said the protest in California “consisted of approximately 80 participants.”
A total of five protesters who refused to leave Google’s offices were “arrested without incident for trespassing,” charged and released, the spokesperson added.
Representatives for the protesters did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrest.
Protesters called on Google to withdraw from the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus contract in which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military.
Critics fear the technology is being used as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza.
Activists within Google have increasingly criticized the deal in recent months amid Israel’s war with Hamas. Israel launched the attack after Hamas carried out a surprise cross-border attack on civilians on October 7 last year.
On Tuesday, the official account for “No Technology for Apartheid” tweeted that employees “refuse to retire until Google shuts off power to the genocide in Gaza.”
