Google Employee Forced to Resign for Speaking Against $1.2 Billion Israeli Contract

An employee at Google named Ariel Koren was asked to quit when she voiced opposition to a transaction worth one billion dollars negotiated between Google, Amazon, the Israeli government, and the Israeli military.

Reportedly, Ms. Koren engaged in acts of retaliation against Google’s Project Nimbus. This was an arrangement worth $1.2 billion between Google and Amazon wherein they would provide artificial intelligence (AI) tools and other computer services to Israel and its military.

She said that the search engine giant had created a hostile environment and taken unlawful acts as a result of her objections and that this was why she had no choice but to leave her post there.

She claimed in her blog post that Google is rapidly leaning toward military contracts and is also suppressing employees who are opposed to these contracts. She said this is happening at Google. She accused Google of using its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Employee Resource Group (ERG) framework to excuse the company’s activities, and she faulted Google for doing so.

In addition, she said that Google intentionally silences Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim employees concerned about the firm’s role in violating Palestinian human rights. As a consequence of this, the firm cultivates an atmosphere of terror for its employees.

Koren provided the information that silencing the views in this manner has benefited the corporation in terms of securing its financial interests with the Israeli military and government.

She has strongly encouraged other Google employees, referred to as “Googlers,” to become informed about Project Nimbus and oppose the initiative. In addition, she has distributed a film showing Palestinian Google employees and their sympathizers voicing their opposition to the project.

In addition, she disclosed that the Jewglers are an internal Jewish support group created to represent Jews and address any discrimination against them; however, the support group is consistently acting as an avenue to advance right-wing beliefs under the pretext of supporting diversity.

The corporation relies on this framework to escape inquiries and concerns about its relations with the Israeli government. It has muted countless voices of Googlers who favour the liberation of Palestine by exploiting the ERG structure.

Ms. Koren went on to note that Israel carried out airstrikes in May 2021, resulting in the deaths of 250 Palestinians, including 60 children, in Gaza. Even though this led to severe criticism of Israel on a global scale, the Jewglers demanded that the company’s leadership show support for Israel.

As a direct consequence of this, the chief executive officers of Google and YouTube, Sundar Pichai and Susan Wojcicki, respectively, issued emails expressing sorrow for Israelis but did not express any concern for the plight of Palestinians.

Read:
Ex-Google Employees come up with their own privacy-focused search engine

Google employees are protesting against a localized search engine for Chinese market

Google employees go on protest against sexism through innovate job title changes

Google warns employees about protests against YouTube’s LGBTQ+ policies during Pride events

Google sued by an ex-employee over supporting pro-diversity posts