28 Google workers have been fired after protesting the company's deal with the Israeli government.
The Tuesday sit-down protest was organized by the organization "No Tech for Apartheid," which has long fought "Project Nimbus," Google and Amazon's combined $1.2 billion deal to offer cloud services to the Israeli government.
According to a post by the advocacy organization on X, a video of the rally showed police detaining Google employees in Sunnyvale, California, at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office.
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The advocacy organization reported that Kurian's office had been occupied for ten hours.
Workers carried posters that said "Googlers Against Genocide," a reference to claims surrounding Israel's airstrikes on Gaza.
"No Tech for Apartheid," which also organized rallies in New York and Seattle, cited an April 12 Time magazine article about a draft deal with Google invoicing the Israeli Ministry of Defence more than $1 million for consultancy services.
A "small number" of workers "disrupted" a few Google facilities. Still, the demonstrations were "part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don't work at Google," a Google representative said.
"After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety," a Google spokeswoman said.
"We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed."
