Employee Fired By Google For Protesting Israeli Military Contract

(CTN News) – In response to a protest against Google’s support of Israel, Google has terminated an employee.

During a keynote address in New York recently, the managing director of Israel business was publicly protested by a Google Cloud engineer who objected to his company’s contribution to technology that supports genocide.

As a result of this incident, the engineer was terminated from Google, which adds to internal dissent management challenges.

An influx of comments regarding military contracts with Israel appeared on the employee message board this week as tensions in Gaza escalated.

In an open letter signed by over 600 employees, the company has been urged to cease its sponsorship of Mind the Tech, a conference that promotes Israeli technology.

It follows a recent speech given by Barak Regev, the managing director of Israel, at an event in New York.

In a video that went viral, a video of an employee protesting during Regev’s speech went viral with the individual shouting: “No clouds for apartheid.” The crowd booed as he was escorted out by security.

Regev responded by emphasizing the importance of providing an opportunity for diverse opinions within a company that upholds democratic principles.

Google says the protesting employee has been terminated for disrupting an official company event.

This type of behavior is unacceptable, regardless of the issue, and the termination resulted from a violation of the company’s policies. Neither the specific policies breached nor the specific violations were explicitly outlined.

Employees of Google have been dissatisfied with involvement in providing technology to military organizations in the U.S. and abroad for a long time.

Protests in 2018 centered around the Defense Department’s Project Maven, and more recently, controversy surrounded Project Nimbus, an AI and computing services agreement involving Google, Amazon Web Services, and the Israeli government.

It is not unusual for Sundar Pichai to find himself on the defensive when confronted by employees during company events.

Google is experiencing increased tension due to the escalation in the Middle East conflict, with Hamas attacks in October causing significant casualties and humanitarian concerns in the Palestinian enclave, resulting in heightened tension at Google.

Originally intended to shape questions for an International Women’s Day Summit in Silicon Valley, the board was closed due to “divisive content” disrupting the workplace, according to a spokesperson.

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