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Hundreds of Google and Amazon employees are calling on their employers to sever ties with Israel
In a letter published this morning addressed to the managements of Google and Amazon, anonymous workers call for the cancellation of the contracts signed by the companies with the Israeli government, and for severing their ties with the IDF, due to aggression against the Palestinians.
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Amazon
Niv Lillian
Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 11:39 Updated: 11:48
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(Photo: Reuters)
"We write this as conscientious Google and Amazon employees, from different backgrounds. We believe the technology we build should work for and elevate people everywhere ... As those who run these companies, we are morally obligated to call on Amazon and Google leaders to step out of the Nimbus project, and sever all ties with the Israeli army".
With these words, a letter was opened that has so far been signed by 90 Google employees and 300 Amazon employees and published this morning in the British "Guardian", calling on the two technology giants to cancel the services contract signed as part of the Nimbus project, Israel's government cloud computing project. The workers, by the way, signed it anonymously, without identifying themselves by name, because "they are afraid of retaliation," they claim.
This is not the first time that employees of the technology giants have taken a stand against security projects that their employers have signed, even with less democratic governments than Israel.
Google has in the past resented contracts signed with the US Department of Defense, as well as negotiations with the Chinese government.
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"We have seen Google and Amazon aggressively pursue contracts with entities such as the Department of Defense, the Immigration and Customs Authority and state and local police departments. These contracts are part of a disturbing pattern of militarization and lack of transparency or oversight." The contract was signed the same week that the Israeli army attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing close to 250 people and more than 60 children. More for the Palestinians, "the workers write.
The letter is signed by 300 Amazon employees (Photo: AP)
It should only be noted that the same attack in question was during the last round of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, in which the Palestinians fired hundreds of rockets at Israel and fired incendiary balloons that ignited fields in southern communities. This fact, for some reason, the conscientious workers do not mention ...
"Nimbus Project" mentioned in the letter is a multi-year project of the Accountant General's Division in the Ministry of Finance, together with the ICT Authority, the National Cyber Network and the Ministry of Defense, with the goal of transferring all government computing For cloud infrastructure. In a tender, which was indeed signed last April, Google and Amazon were selected as suppliers to the public cloud layer of the project, which is estimated to cost about $ 1 billion.
"We condemn the decision of Google and Amazon to sign Nimbus project contracts with the Israeli military and government, and ask them to cancel the contract and any future contract that will harm our users. We call on technology workers around the world and the international community to join us in building a world where technology promotes security and fairness to all," concludes The anonymous protesters wrote their letter.
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