Google has fired employees over anti-Israel protests

US tech giant Google has fired 28 employees for occupying office space for several hours to protest an agreement with the Israeli government. The decision was made after an internal investigation, a Google spokesperson said Thursday, adding that further investigations are being conducted and may lead to further action.

A group called “No Tech for Apartheid” occupied the office of Thomas Gurion, the manager responsible for Google's cloud storage service, in Sunnyvale, California on Tuesday. Activists said they stayed there for ten hours. Videos posted by activists on the online service X showed police officers arresting several Google employees. Protests also took place in New York and Seattle.

Google spoke of a “small number” of employees who disrupted operations at a few Google locations. The protests are part of a “long-running campaign by a group of companies and individuals who mostly don't work at Google.”

The activist group protested against the US$1.2 billion (about 1,090,668,00 francs) joint venture between technology giants Google and Amazon and the Israeli government. Opponents pointed to a Time Magazine report from April that Google paid the Israeli Defense Ministry more than $1 million for consulting services on a draft contract.

A Google spokesperson indicated that Israel is one of “several” countries working with the company. Services are not connected to military or secret service work.