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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><strong><span
style="font-size:24pt">‘Google Profits From Apartheid’,
Google Workers & </span></strong><span
style="font-size:32px"><b>RELEASE </b></span><strong><span
style="font-size:24pt">Bay Area Community Protest Company
Conference Celebrating Google Cloud’s First Profitable
Year</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><em><span
style="font-size:18pt">Protest Escalates Years of
Community Opposition to Company’s $1.2 Billion ‘Project
Nimbus’ Contract With Israel</span></em></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><em><span
style="font-size:18pt"><img
id="m_1235381428124483208m_154526088643143450m_-6180295472037655157image_7635"
src="https://meltwater-apps-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/645d535ff42c6200132b0e7b/blobid3_1693355881998.jpg"
class="gmail-CToWUd gmail-a6T" tabindex="0"
style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px;"
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<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><a
href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK4w85yN2rhorccVh2PQtVy8SNbxmCyFi-2FzuSMX1zA5UhRmD80HxOs9SbRl7HvgrhPGuDvko8kaS8Fcfay8PQGrbcwyk899aZqTofw8FMBdYo6-Rj_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQiU97ErqpejnxHrPpIwEw3DwZEiqKn2BhAbs9dZm4ANYYdP5BW9VnZMvnRpQCDzQOFwCl5oE-2FJ71P9geIUSUllMG7fz7l17Ww6iLIhDJXghJcWb8Q14MgmbwrnYViUGxOlQvKsn78kYF-2FM0YFG4GKoy37Tx6hNHDP-2BfMoGMzi8p8TkIsSyYAylPzy4hY4IGmTw-3D-3D"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">See Photos and Videos
Here</a></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">(San Francisco, CA) –
This evening at the Google Cloud Next conference, over 20
community activists locked arms and chained themselves to
fixtures in the central plaza of the Moscone Center in
downtown San Francisco. The activists did so in protest
against Google and Amazon's $1.2 billion contract with the
Israeli military and government.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Joined by Google workers
and hundreds of additional community members rallying in the
central courtyard, chained protestors took over a main
conference thoroughfare and bridge walkway and unfurled a
giant banner reading "Google: Project Nimbus Fuels Israeli
Apartheid." Private security and San Francisco police were
called to the scene, as thousands of conference participants
transitioned to the event's inaugural happy hour. </p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">"<em>Palestinians are
subjected to Israel's technological warfare every day. The
tech promised by Project Nimbus will be used to murder,
jail, surveil, and ethnically cleanse Palestinians,</em>"
says <strong>Romi Abdelkarim, an organizer with the
Palestinian Youth Movement,</strong> who was also one of the
activists to chain themselves to other activists on a
conference center walkway in an act of protest. "<em>The
automated technology used on Palestinians is something out
of a dystopian movie: AI guided machine guns, facial
recognition and location trafficking, AI manned
armed-drones, and high-tech civilian registration programs.
We will not allow Google to build more of this racist,
genocidal technology for Israel.</em>"</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Part of a campaign
called #NoTechforApartheid organized by tech workers, civil
society, and community members, these protests represent the
rapidly growing movement of tech workers taking public action
against these contracts. This protest also takes place during
the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, or the mass displacement
and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli
war.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">"<em>Google has
continuously silenced and intimidated workers who speak out
against Project Nimbus</em>,” says <strong>Ariel Koren, a
former Jewish Google worker</strong> who faced retaliation
for her opposition to the contract, and who also joined 20+
activists in civil disobedience. "<em>Google initially
withheld information about the contract to the public and
its own workers, actively insisting the project is a mundane
civilian contract. But over the past two years our concerns
about the contract’s nefarious military use have proven to
be completely correct. Amidst the company’s threats and
retaliation, workers have only grown more emboldened to
fight against building tech for apartheid</em>."</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">This action follows
almost two years of activism by Amazon and Google workers to
pressure their respective companies to cancel their cloud
contracts with Israel. Last September, on the heels of Google
worker Ariel Koren’s <a
href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK7JAUEaCg-2F7GgUszK-2BWoDN30s4tZR1ID39qPaXhaDqw08htlREak27c8fKu0NcPiCTtMkv8wEMKqBfOyKJnXApLXzuRJBikDNoqAfWK8Y6lcEI00_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQqXvOomv-2B3rJXv-2BrB7UNqx9AvGmdvLCD2yF-2B39AGYKgffCiqPNpKZL-2BW1L4UIQHhsvfeqCP2J9cM7yDPFhNDDhb7-2FClQfTUBunpjiNXpRYRH2RiNCWZC2G9D1SxKI055MF4-2FPgj5W6-2FYIDMWFVKFivpYj54AUQBASeDEF8MoOd93FC0tUww3BergVjrbLn6oiA-3D-3D"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">forced resignation</a>,
Amazon and Google tech workers led protests with hundreds in
attendance in front of their offices in New York City, San
Francisco, Durham, and Seattle.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Citing the
well-documented human rights abuses and violations of
international law committed by the Israeli government and
military against Palestinians, <a
href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK6vPFvY68YcUIkMuaLjeRGWaA5Da-2BJOPbE-2BJUKjwTuCh5w2qV0cYZNEEcIKEHfR0sFnj2ekVEapo2gffQn-2BJe2oh3VoMfzD1Ldyc6pR82LaNYgvuKcj01KDMi8g6ibUoSaPBXIo2wt2pNzUKP2Dwbla-2BWkgFrkbXmaspzEAhB26bc6P7_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQrJQ6oQe5MZl9LpWfKCMB5qye1ZbPVoLrHp-2BtjxcedKoDE3ACbOiOGT4RIaalfhTRqLPdyRTCNy9OFMkcNGLZ8kIQ2oEVYEgIce7Mp4gJgWg4sZ-2FS6EbaSCjTdkBb4AtBgZ4dWS-2BZ9WF-2B26Ntt5-2FLdl6p5IKyHL8OUiE6tfNKoHaA0BfT4SZdadIKhGcDXbASQ-3D-3D"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">thousands of workers</a> at
Amazon and Google have <a
href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK6vPFvY68YcUIkMuaLjeRGWaA5Da-2BJOPbE-2BJUKjwTuCh5w2qV0cYZNEEcIKEHfR0sFnj2ekVEapo2gffQn-2BJe2oh3VoMfzD1Ldyc6pR82LaNYgvuKcj01KDMi8g6ibUoSaPBXIo2wt2pNzUKP2Dwbla-2BWkgFrkbXmaspzEAhB26b7Mo-_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQqTNaReQalD3X0WjPFw-2F4mucpCJL5fqCdC7RrcCoDMfwq-2BrhMuKxPUzL9X8YPMtI86R0R6JEaGOPUgmnNymnqrCOvlW-2Fr6LtrrGDOgIUMc3J2-2Frn9a7euwers8oZ-2FlY3g4O4IB6I9W-2FYIEnxIZs-2BOrF2ehFw-2BtB7Ycfn84-2F3WB5MNgmLOPfjW6uIVJZXfUPj5Q-3D-3D"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">called on their
companies to stop working on Project Nimbus</a>, based on
the potential for this technology to be used to surveil,
oppress, or commit other forms of violence against
Palestinians. Tens of thousands of others have<a
href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK2eNZKZhzOkA3t5bjUJssh8KHUloXS0vlPxvf2o8sfgEjHVQ_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQlGbM60-2BWPMzlTj0UhcqcOFkbLWWel7jVJXX1j2oH1KsCppAWuHYWvMOi1E8BPqDn-2FM7ennIWPT9qGHTsNqkveFIRQ6ad3XxJd0PNrMQ5qhuuwwByqkvcmN-2BVVgG-2FVHcl9N-2BU6vtbA2AG-2Fu-2FNMnmPHLViNkdLUdmfRx-2FZ6j9nu62MDR-2BnhQahvCLCuWbEd6BGw-3D-3D"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"> joined those
workers’ calls</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">"<em>We are being forced
to escalate to demand action and answers from Google. Years
of due diligence, appealing to management, and taking to the
media have only gotten us small gestures at transparency,</em>"
says<strong> Josh Marxen, a Google Cloud worker</strong> participating
in the action by flyering and having conversations about
Project Nimbus with conference-goers and fellow Google
workers. "<em>Google Cloud leadership has sacrificed ethics
and worker wellbeing in pursuit of this contract with an
apartheid state. We want Google Cloud to grow and prosper,
but we cannot accept that Cloud's profitability has come on
the back of genocidal use of our technology.</em>"</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">To date, Amazon and
Google executives have ignored their workers’ demands. Workers
describe the contract as “part of a disturbing pattern of
militarization, lack of transparency and avoidance of
oversight.”</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center">###</p>
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