A Google Employee, Ariel Koren, has been forced to resign by Google after she opposed a billion-dollar deal between Google, Amazon, the Israeli government, and the military.
Ms. Koren reportedly retaliated against Google’s Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion agreement for Google and Amazon to give Israel and its military artificial intelligence (AI) tools and other computing services.
She claimed that the search-engine giant created a hostile atmosphere and took illegal actions due to her opposition, and that is why she had no other option but to resign.
I am leaving @Google this week due to retaliation & hostility against workers who speak out. Google moved my role overseas immediately after I opposed its $1B AI/surveillance contracts with Israel. And this is far from an isolated instance.https://t.co/V4y05kOYQv pic.twitter.com/eRMrzTPYfb
— Ariel Koren (@ariel_koko) August 30, 2022
In her blog post, she mentioned that Google is increasingly tilting towards military contracts and also silencing employees who are opposing them. She blamed Google for exploiting its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Employee Resource Group (ERG) structure to justify its actions.
Furthermore, she stated that Google deliberately muzzles Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim workers who are worried about the company’s role in violations of Palestinian human rights. Subsequently, the company develops a fearful environment for them.
Koren detailed that shutting off the voices in this way has helped the company secure its financial interests with the Israeli military and government.
She has urged Googlers (Google Employees) to learn more about Project Nimbus and take action against it. She has also shared a video of Palestinian Googlers and their allies who are speaking against the project. Here is the video.
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In addition, she revealed that the Jewglers, an internal Jewish support group, was made to represent Jews and address any kind of discrimination against them, however, the support group is consistently acting as an avenue to advance right-wing beliefs under the pretext of supporting diversity.
It has silenced multiple voices of Googlers in support of Palestine’s freedom by misusing the ERG structure, the company relies on this structure to evade queries and concerns about their links with the Israeli authorities.
Ms. Koren further noted that in May 2021, Israel airstrikes killed 250 Palestinians including 60 children in Gaza, resulting in severe global criticism of Israel, but the Jewglers demanded the company’s leadership to display support for Israel.
Resultantly, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Youtube, sent emails showing sympathy for Israelis but did not show any concerns for the persecuted Palestinians.
