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A number of left-wing Google employees were arrested on Tuesday for occupying company offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California.

The disgruntled employees were protesting Google’s $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli government. They opted to stage a sit-in at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in Sunnyvale and the 10th floor commons of Google’s New York office.

As seen in the video above, NYPD officers began arresting protesters who refused their request to vacate the office. The Washington Post reported that nine employees were arrested across both offices, citing Jane Chung, a spokesperson for the protesters.

According to the Post, the sit-ins organized by the activist group No Tech for Apartheid, were seen as “escalating the conflict inside tech companies over the war in Gaza and whether U.S. companies should sell their technology to Israel.”

“As the Israeli Occupation Forces bombed homes, clinics, and schools in Gaza and threatened to push Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem May 2021, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud executives signed a $1.22 billion contract to provide cloud technology to the Israeli government and military. By doing business with Israeli apartheid, Amazon and Google will make it easier for the Israeli government to surveil Palestinians and force them off their land,” said a No Tech for Apartheid website set up to push an open letter.

Outdoor protests were also held at Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale, San Francisco, and Seattle.

“Some workers and outside activists have opposed the contract, known as Nimbus, since it was signed in 2021. But protests have ramped up over the past seven months as Israeli forces continue to bombard the Gaza Strip, following Hamas’s Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel. Workers have circulated internal emails, protested outside company offices and staged a “die-in” outside one of Google’s buildings in San Francisco in December, blocking traffic on a busy downtown street,” the Post reported.

Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson said the employees were violating company policies and that “action” will be taken.

“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,” Tomson said, according to the newspaper. “These employees were put on administrative leave, and their access to our systems was cut. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”

Tom Tillison
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