PALESTINIAN, JEWISH, MUSLIM, AND ARAB GOOGLE EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT
Palestinian and allied Google employees speak out about the anti-Palestinian bias they have witnessed within the company. This bias – and the larger company pattern of stifling concerned workers’ voices – is part of a larger culture, the same culture that has enabled Google to justify its 1 billion dollar contract with the Israeli government and military, Project Nimbus.
Many of the Google employees in this video are speaking out anonymously due to fear of retaliation. To protect the identities of the employees, their stories are read aloud by volunteers. You can hear their full testimonies below:
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"Working at Google was always my dream job, until I learned about Project Nimbus. I feel like I am making my living off of the oppression of my family back home. If Google truly believes in avoiding unjust impacts through the use of their AI, then why are they choosing to profit from a billion dollar contract with a government and military which consistently violates international law?"
Anonymous Palestinian Googler
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"Countless employees have tried to speak out about the violations the Palestinians have endured and have been intentionally ignored. When opaque military contracts arise like Project Nimbus, it makes me feel like I am working for the bad guy."
Anonymous Palestinian Googler
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"As a Palestinian, My feelings of marginalization only grew when I began seeing my coworkers issued warnings, just for having empathy for Palestinians."
Anonymous Palestinian Googler
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"It has become impossible to express any opinion of disagreement of the war waged on Palestinians without being called into a HR meeting with the threat of retaliation."
Anonymous Palestinian Googler
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"Google's Project Nimbus will be a big ugly moment in Google’s history and a shameful and embarrassing engagement. Project Nimbus will demoralize and agonize the many Googlers who truly believe and stand for Google’s mission and values!"
Anonymous Palestinian Googler
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"I shared an internal fundraiser in a Google-wide Forum. I was told that the phrase "Support Palestine" was offensive."
Anonymous Palestinian Googler
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"I have found Google's DEI to be a whitewash and more a tool for censorship and control than for truly supporting employees. I am deeply disappointed by the company's response to the employee petition to drop Project Nimbus. Google has not responded to our voices and our many attempts to escalate our grave ethical concerns in a civil and respectful manner. "
Mushtaq Syed, Muslim Googler
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"When the violence in Gaza escalated in May of 2021, I started to notice just how discriminatory Google is against Palestinians."
Anonymous Arab Googler
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"Learning about the Project Nimbus deal and seeing with my own eyes how leaders in the company completely neglected Palestinians made me really disappointed in this company. I know from what I have seen at Google that speaking freely with my name would have a detrimental impact on my life by leading me to be retaliated against and even accused of antisemitism, simply for defending Palestinian rights."
Anonymous Arab Googler
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"Project Nimbus makes me feel ashamed to work here… I just hope our company will stop ignoring its own workers and do the right thing."
Anonymous Arab Googler
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"During my time at Google I’ve had my opinions called anti-semitic by the unelected people who purport to speak on behalf of all Jews at google. I am Jewish, born and raised in Israel. The claims directed at me have no grounding in reason. They are knee-jerk reactions I’ve gotten because I am not Zionist, and because it’s the reaction you get at Google for having non-Zionist views."
Anonymous Jewish Israeli Googler
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"It is clear Google doesnt care about antisemitism when it comes to truly protecting religious and ethnic minorities from the threats of the rise in white christian nationalism. All they care about is using their own convenient and false definitions of antisemitism to set the stage for their profits off of business with Israel."
Anonymous Jewish Googler
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"Zionist employees at Google have called for myself and my fellow Jewish coworkers to be fired for speaking up about our concerns with Project Nimbus, accused us of being antisemitic and shameful to the Jewish community, and have harassed several anti-Zionist Palestinian, Muslim, and Jewish workers across the company. Google leadership has treated the company-sponsored Jewish employee resource group, whose incentives as a company-sponsored group are aligned with maintaining the company's status quo, as the singular voice of Jewish workers at Google."
Anonymous Jewish Googler
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"We need to ask ourselves: Do we want to give the nationalist armies of the world our technology? Or do we need to stand by the original theory behind Google: that we can make money without doing evil."
Gabriel Schubiner, Jewish Googler
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"Project Nimbus is an abuse of power from a company designed to help people. Where is the morality? I do not support Google’s role in Project Nimbus."
- Anonymous Black Googler