Google made headlines this week as the tech giant fired 28 employees who participated in protests demanding the company stop doing business with Israel. The protests included occupying an executive's office in California and disrupting work at the company's New York building.
According to Google's vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, the protesting employees defaced property, physically impeded the work of others, and made coworkers feel threatened. The employees were initially placed on administrative leave while an investigation took place, and some were arrested after refusing to leave for over eight hours.
The demands of the protesters included that Google drop its $1.2 billion contract with Israel for Project Nimbus, a cloud-computing project of the Israeli government. Rackow emphasized that such behavior has no place in the workplace and violates company policies.
The terminations of the protesting employees mark Google's first concrete steps to address what appears to be a prevalent issue of anti-Semitism within its workforce. Previous incidents, including anti-Semitic graffiti found in Google offices and a Jewish employee being assaulted by anti-Israel protesters, have raised concerns about the company's internal culture.
The organization behind the protests, No Tech for Apartheid, criticized Google's actions as retaliatory and illegal, claiming that workers who did not participate in the protests were also fired. The group accused Google of prioritizing its contract with Israel over its own employees and labeled company executives as "genocide profiteers."
Despite the firings, No Tech for Apartheid stated that the protests will continue until Google drops Project Nimbus and ceases its business dealings with Israel. Google has not yet responded to requests for comment on the situation.