Google kicks jewish employee out of the US for opposing Israhell

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A Jewish Google employee says her activism against an Israel contract got her job moved to Brazil
https://www.jta.org/2022/03/16/united-states/a-jewish-google-employee-says-her-activism-against-an-israel-contract-got-her-job-moved-to-brazil

A Jewish Google employee who has tried to pressure the company to end a contract to build cloud-based data centers for the Israeli government says the tech giant has retaliated against her activism — by asking her to relocate to Brazil.

Ariel Koren told the Los Angeles Times that after she criticized and lobbied other employees against Project Nimbus, a contract worth $1.2 billion that Google and Amazon Web Services jointly entered with Israel, Google responded by relocating her role from the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, to its office in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In October, Koren had been one of two Jewish Google employees to spearhead an employee petition against Project Nimbus. The statement objected to the contract by saying the project, which will transfer the Israeli government's data to cloud-based storage centers over a period of several years, "allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel's illegal settlements on Palestinian land."

One month later, Koren said she was told her role would be relocating to Sao Paulo, and that she was given 17 business days to commit to move.

"It is clear that the relocation order was an act of retaliation," Koren told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email. "Our petition calling on Google and Amazon to end Project Nimbus has over 1,000 worker signatures but I was just one of two Google employees to speak out publicly."

Koren has filed complaints with Google's human resources department and the National Labor Relations Board. Google told the Los Angeles Times it has investigated the case and found no evidence of retaliation.

Koren, who co-founded a worker collective called Jewish Diaspora in Tech and has been active in progressive and anti-Zionist Jewish circles, has linked her activism against Project Nimbus to her Jewish background.

A petition signed by more than 500 Google employees in support of Koren accuses the company of "unjustly retaliating" against her. Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democratic member of Congress, also wrote a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai supporting Koren, saying, "employees have a right to voice their objections about the work of their employer, without facing risk of retaliation."

Koren told JTA she's "overwhelmed by the outpouring of support."

Koren had previously worked out of Google's Mexico City office on projects related to its education arm in Latin America, and had taken time away from her job to found the activist group Respond Crisis Translation, which provides translation services for asylum seekers. She also has family in Brazil and speaks Portuguese, along with nine other languages including Hebrew and Ladino. But she said a move to Brazil had never been on the table prior to her criticism of Project Nimbus, and that the required move is unnecessary given the remote nature of her job.

Koren remains employed by Google and based in San Francisco, according to the Los Angeles Times report. Project Nimbus remains on track, as well, which Koren continues to object to.

"It's clear that Google's contract with the Israeli military and government will directly harm Palestinians using the technology that Google employees are expected to create," she told JTA. "That is why workers are calling on Google to cancel the contract."

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Over 500 Google staff rally behind colleague opposing the firm's Israel military contract
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220317-over-500-google-staff-rally-behind-colleague-opposing-the-firms-israel-military-contract/

Google has come under fire for "unjustly retaliating" against an employee who objected to its contract with the Israeli military. More than 500 of its staff have rallied behind a colleague who alleges she is being pushed out of her job because of her anti-Israeli activism.

The workers have signed a petition accusing Google leadership of "unjustly retaliating" against Google's Product Marketing Manager for Education, Ariel Koren, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Koren is one of two Jewish Google employees that have been playing a key role in a worker petition calling on the firm to cancel a joint contract to build cloud-based data centre's on behalf of the Israeli government.

The massive $1.2 billion contract known as Project Nimbus is one of Israel's largest technology infrastructure ventures. The contract was signed with the Israeli military last May following a bid in which it beat other giants like Microsoft. Google and Amazon are to provide cloud services technology to Tel Aviv and its armed forces.

In October, hundreds of anonymous employees of the companies, who described themselves as "employees of conscience from diverse backgrounds", condemned the programme in an open letter to the Guardian.

The open letter says the deal violates the signers' "core values" by fostering surveillance of Palestinians and encouraging the expansion of Jewish settlements. "The technology we build should work to serve and uplift people everywhere," said the employees in the letter. "We are morally obligated to speak out against violations of these core values."

"For me as a Jewish employee of Google, I feel a deep sense of intense moral responsibility," Koren was reported saying in the Times of Israel following the publication of the open letter. "When you work in a company, you have the right to be accountable and responsible for the way that your labor is actually being used."

The LA Times reported that shortly after Koren helped draft the letter among Google and Amazon workers her boss suggested she move to Brazil or lose her position. Koren says that she has faced added scrutiny since raising her concerns over the Nimbus Project. "It was just so outlandish. The whole thing was completely wild," Koren told the LA Times speaking about her being moved to Sao Paulo.

Though Google has denied the allegations, Koren has argued that the rationale for relocating the position was "clearly designed" to push her off the team. She accused the company of retaliating against her for her activism protesting Project Nimbus.

Koren remains employed by Google. Her complaint is being investigated by the San Francisco labour board.

It was pointed out that the support for Koren highlights continuing tension between Google's increasingly outspoken workforce and its senior management over how the company's technology is used. It also fuels the view among a growing cohort of Googlers that the company's once transparent culture is giving way to a tightly controlled environment that punishes worker activism.

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The billion dollar deal that made Google and Amazon partners in the Israeli occupation of Palestine
https://www.juancole.com/2022/03/partners-occupation-palestine.html

"We are anonymous because we fear retaliation." This text was part of a letter signed by 500 Google employees last October, in which they decried their company's direct support for the Israeli government and military.

In their letter, the signatories protested a $1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Israeli government which provides cloud services for the Israeli military and government that "allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel's illegal settlements on Palestinian land".

This is called Project Nimbus. The project was announced in 2018 and went into effect in May 2021, in the first week of the Israeli war on besieged Gaza, which killed over 250 Palestinians and wounded many more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVQow02O5VM

The Google employees were not only disturbed by the fact that, by entering into this agreement with Israel, their company became directly involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but were equally outraged by the "disturbing pattern of militarization" that saw similar contracts between Google – Amazon, Microsoft and other tech giants – with the US military, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other policing agencies.

In an article published in The Nation newspaper in June, three respected US academics have revealed the financial component of Amazon's decision to get involved in such an immoral business, arguing that such military-linked contracts have "become a major source of profit for Amazon." It is estimated, according to the article, that AWS alone was responsible for 63 per cent of Amazon's profits in 2020.

The maxim 'people before profit' cannot be any more appropriate than in the Palestinian context, and neither Google nor Amazon can claim ignorance. The Israeli occupation of Palestine has been in place for decades, and numerous United Nations resolutions have condemned Israel for its occupation, colonial expansion and violence against Palestinians. If all of that was not enough to wane the enthusiasm of Google and Amazon to engage in projects that specifically aimed at protecting Israel's 'national security' – read: continued occupation of Palestine – a damning report by Israel's largest human rights group, B'tselem should have served as that wake up call.

B'tselem declared Israel an apartheid state in January 2021. The international rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) followed suit in April, also denouncing the Israeli apartheid state. That was only a few weeks before Project Nimbus was declared. It was as if Google and Amazon were purposely declaring their support of apartheid. The fact that the project was signed during the Israeli war on Gaza speaks volumes about the two tech giants' complete disregards of international law, human rights and the very freedom of the Palestinian people.

It gets worse. On March 15, hundreds of Google workers signed a petition protesting the firing of one of their colleagues, Ariel Koren, who was active in generating the October letter in protest of Project Nimbus. Koren was the product marketing manager at Google for Education, and has worked for the company for six years. However, she was the kind of employee who was not welcomed by the likes of Google, as the company is now directly involved with various military and security projects.

"For me, as a Jewish employee of Google, I feel a deep sense of intense moral responsibility," she said in a statement last October. "When you work in a company, you have the right to be accountable and responsible for the way that your labor is actually being used," she added.

Google quickly retaliated to that seemingly outrageous statement. The following month, her manager "presented her with an ultimatum: move to Brazil or lose her position." Eventually, she was driven out of the company.

Koren was not the first Google – or Amazon – employee to be fired for standing up for a good cause, nor would, sadly, be the last. In this age of militarism, surveillance, unwarranted facial recognition and censorship, speaking one's mind and daring to fight for human rights and other basic freedoms is no longer an option.

Amazon's warehouses can be as bad, or even worse than a typical sweatshop. Last March, and after a brief denial, Amazon apologized for forcing its workers to pee in water bottles – and worse – so that their managers may fulfill their required quotas. The apology followed direct evidence provided by the investigative journalism website, The Intercept. However, the company which stands accused of numerous violations of worker rights – including its engagement in 'union busting' – is not expected to reverse course any time soon, especially when so much profits are at stake.

But profits generated from market monopoly, mistreatment of workers or other misconducts are different from profits generated from contributing directly to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Though human rights violations should be shunned everywhere, regardless of their contexts, Israel's war on the Palestinian people, now with the direct help of such companies, remains one of the gravest injustices that continues to scar the consciousness of humankind. No amount of Google justification or Amazon rationalization can change the fact that they are facilitating Israeli war crimes in Palestine.

To be more precise, according to The Nation, the Google-Amazon cloud service will help Israel expand its illegal Jewish settlements by "supporting data for the Israel Land Authority (ILA), the government agency that manages and allocates state land." These settlements, which are repeatedly condemned by the international community, are built on Palestinian land and are directly linked to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

According to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, Project Nimbus is the "most lucrative tender issued by Israel in recent years." The Project, which has ignited a "secretive war" involving top Israeli army generals – all vying for a share in the profit – has also whetted the appetite of many other international tech companies, all wanting to be part of Israel's technology drive, with the ultimate aim of keeping Palestinians entrapped, occupied and oppressed.

This is precisely why the Palestinian boycott movement is absolutely critical as it targets these international companies, which are migrating to Israel in search for profits. Israel, on the contrary, should be boycotted, not enabled, sanctioned and not rewarded. While profit generation is understandably the main goal of companies like Google and Amazon, this goal can be achieved without necessarily requiring the subjugation of a whole people, who are currently the victims of the world's last remaining apartheid regime.

[yankeedoodle]

Google worker who protested Israel contract says she was forced to quit
Former Google employee Ariel Koren says the company has "sustained a culture of silencing anti-Zionist Jews and creating toxic and unjust conditions for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim workers."
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/09/google-worker-who-protested-israel-contract-says-she-was-forced-to-quit/?ml_recipient=65137630561436791&ml_link=65137562025461014&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2022-09-02&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines

A Google worker who publicly opposed a company contract with the Israeli military has resigned from her position citing retaliation from her employer.

Ariel Koren, a product marketing manager at Google for Education who has worked at the tech company for more than seven years, explained the situation her a Medium post.

"Due to retaliation, a hostile environment, and illegal actions by the company, I cannot continue to work at Google and have no choice but to leave the company at the end of this week," wrote Koren. "Instead of listening to employees who want Google to live up to its ethical principles, Google is aggressively pursuing military contracts and stripping away the voices of its employees through a pattern of silencing and retaliation towards me and many others."

Koren's activism targeted Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon Web Services, and Israel that helped provide cloud services to the country's military and government. In October 2021 Koren drafted a public letter criticizing the agreement. "We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the international criminal court," it read. "We envision a future where technology brings people together and makes life better for everyone. To build that brighter future, the companies we work for need to stop contracting with any and all militarized organizations in the US and beyond."

Hundreds of workers at Google and Amazon signed the letter.

Koren said that Google gave her an ultimatum the following month: either relocate to the company's Brazil office or be fired. The move prompted Koren to file a complaint with Google's human resources department and unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). A petition supporting Koren was circulated at time and it was signed by more than 25,000 people.

Google has publicly stated that they investigated the complaint and found no evidence of retaliation. Koren says the company's HR team eventually admitted to her that the demand had been "improper and harmful", but still refused to acknowledge that it came in response to her activism.

In her Medium post Koren, who is Jewish, also says that Google has "sustained a culture of silencing anti-Zionist Jews and creating toxic and unjust conditions for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim workers."

"Anti-Zionist Jews at Google will not stop speaking out against Israel's injustices against Palestinians; but we acknowledge our privilege to do so safely while our Palestinian colleagues and friends are not afforded the same privilege to feel safe and be heard," she wrote. "Our Palestinian colleagues deserve better than this; our Palestinian users deserve better than this. The general public deserves better than this."

In a YouTube video fifteen other Google employees posted testimonials about the company's treatment of Palestinians, policies of censorship, and acts of retaliation. "Working at Google was always my dream job until I learned about Project Nimbus," reads one testimonial. "I feel like I am making my living off the oppression of my family back home."

"As a Palestinian, my feelings of marginalization only grew when I began seeing my coworkers issued warnings just for having empathy for Palestinians," says another employee.

One worker says that they're now "ashamed" to work for Google as a result of Project Nimbus.

A New York Times article on Koren's resignation references "Google's growing reputation for punishing employees who are publicly critical of the company is a notable change for an employer that once nourished an outspoken workplace culture."

In November 2019 Google fired five workers over organizing. The NLRB filed a complaint against the company saying two of those firings had been illegal and that they had spied on multiple employees.

Koren's medium post also calls on readers to take action. She asks people to pressure the company to drop Project Nimbus, join the "No Tech for Apartheid" campaign, and amplify Palestinian voices. "Don't be complacent or apathetic; take responsibility for your company and how your labor is used," Koren writes.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxlyaVWrHMw