Genocide- G O O G L E- Project Nimbus

As workers who keep these companies running, we are morally obligated to speak out against violations of these core values. For this reason, we are compelled to call on the leaders of Amazon and Google to pull out of Project Nimbus and cut all ties with the Israeli military. So far, more than 90 workers at Google and more than 300 at Amazon have signed this letter internally. We are anonymous because we fear retaliation.

We have watched Google and Amazon aggressively pursue contracts with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), and state and local police departments. These contracts are part of a disturbing pattern of militarization, lack of transparency and avoidance of oversight.

Continuing this pattern, our employers signed a contract called Project Nimbus to sell dangerous technology to the Israeli military and government. This contract was signed the same week that the Israeli military attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – killing nearly 250 people, including more than 60 children. The technology our companies have contracted to build will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueler and deadlier for Palestinians.

Project Nimbus is a $1.2bn contract to provide cloud services for the Israeli military and government. This technology allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/google-amazon-workers-condemn-project-nimbus-israeli-military-contract


On December 14, 2023, a well-organized Die-In Protest was held outside Google Headquarters in San Francisco.   I was one of over 30 "G E N O C I D E" sheeted "bodies" (along with additional support people) lying on the sidewalk as our protest took place as evening began.

After a moving series of speeches and chants, we left our sheets and held kites, adding additional symbolism.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C04x9eYyRzF/?igshid=MzRIODBiN-WFIZA==

Link to Video of the Action - https://twitter.com/i/status/1735505671104454683


The Protest - with the DieIn - was most meaningful!

The speeches were impassioned!
Several Google workers spoke (one of the speakers remained anonymous as she feared retribution.).   A common theme spoke of how they had come to Google with idealism about the Company Values!
Google - had professed to be and had been a very progressive employer.   It was an excellent employer which encouraged employee innovative efforts.   The Company had supported a progressive agenda!



Now Google had changed in a MAJOR Way!    Google had become a War Profiteer!
Its $1.2 Billion Nimbus Contract allied itself deeply with Israel's IDF Forces helping it directly target Palestinian People in multiple ways!  The technology is directly complicit in the intended Killing of Thousands of Palestinian People in Gaza (and potentially elsewhere)!    Major apartment buildings, houses, mosques, schools, hospitals and much more are targeted - to create terror among the Gazan People!

One of the last speakers stood on stage with his two very young children, as his partner was (I believe) a part of those of us who were covered with the sheets.
At least one of the children - perhaps age 3 or 4 - lead us in two chants!   Their young voice(s) - was/were a noted contrast to the otherwise adults leading us in the chants.
A reading of the Poem:  "If I Must Die" (another reading of it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCP1KF2mDhk was part of the end of our Protest in Dramatic Irony!

A professor of comparative literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, Alareer was famed for his role in chronicling Gazan experiences. He was instrumental in nurturing young Palestinian writers and helped them tell their stories in English, according to friends and colleagues.

Alareer spoke to CNN from Gaza City, on October 12 and October 13. He gave consent in written messages to share the recording in the event of his death.

Weeks later, on December 7, Alareer was killed by a strike in Shajaiya, in northern Gaza, his friend and colleague, Jehad Abusalim, confirmed to CNN. He was staying with his brother, his sister, and her four children, who were also killed, according to Abusalim, a writer, 35, based in Washington, DC.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/middleeast/refaat-alareer-gaza-professor-killed-in-airstrike-intl/index.html

Rest in Power - Refaat Alareer
https://electronicintifada.net/content/rest-power-refaat-alareer/42776?utm_source=EI+readers&utm_campaign=fcf8511306-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-fcf8511306-290656101

The final speaker then spoke and sang - and we sang the chorus in Arabic!   It was both sad and empowering!
The words - throughout the Protest made clear that we will be back - until the Genocide Ceases!   Radical change is Imperative!

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