Over 1,000 students have pledged to boycott job opportunities at Google and Amazon over the firms' involvement in Project Nimbus, in which they provide cloud computing services to the Israeli government.
No Tech for Apartheid's Pledge Against Tech Giants With Tie to Israel
The pledge is part of a campaign led by No Tech for Apartheid (NOTA), a coalition advocating for tech giants to end contracts perceived as supporting human rights violations.
The coalition targets to gather 1,200 signatures from students and young workers, urging them to refuse job offers from Google and Amazon until these companies withdraw from Project Nimbus.
Wired has reported that more than 1,100 STEM students and young professionals have committed to this pledge, citing concerns about the companies' support of Israel's policies toward Palestinians.
Joining the #NoTechForApartheid campaign that calls for Amazon and Google to boycott and divest from Project Nimbus, they are taking a stand against what they perceive as troubling practices.
Over 1,000 students have pledged to boycott job opportunities at Google and Amazon over the firms' involvement in Project Nimbus, in which they provide cloud computing services to the Israeli government.ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Project Nimbus Linked to Google, Amazon
Under this project, Google and Amazon secured a $1.2 billion contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence services.
Google has clarified that its involvement in Project Nimbus does not extend to tasks involving highly sensitive or classified military operations or intelligence services. Google employees have periodically protested against company projects and ethical dilemmas related to its AI development.
One significant protest occurred in 2018, prompting Google to end its contract with the US Defense Department for "Project Maven," which focused on analyzing military video footage.
Despite internal dissent over its practices, Google continues to thrive. Its primary revenue stream remains digital advertising, bolstered by its leading search engine.
Google and Amazon, among the world's largest tech firms, are also major employers of STEM graduates. Students supporting the campaign come from Stanford, UC Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University, all located in California, where Google's headquarters are.
NOTA has previously staged protests against tech companies' collaborations with Israel, including sit-ins and office takeovers that resulted in Google firing several employees.
In March, an organizer was dismissed from Google for disrupting an executive's speech at an Israeli tech conference in New York, vocally opposing the development of technologies supporting genocide or surveillance.
NOTA has been actively involved in protests against Project Nimbus in recent months. Eddie Hatfield, a NOTA organizer, was terminated by Google in March after disrupting the Google Israel managing director's speech at a tech conference in New York.
Following a sit-in organized by NOTA at Google's New York and Sunnyvale offices, more than 50 Google employees were subsequently fired. Despite Google's assertion that Project Nimbus does not involve classified or military activities, leaked documents have linked the contract to work for Israel's military.
