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Google Fired 28 Workers After Protests Over Its Cloud Deal With Israel

Google fired 28 employees after sit-in protests over Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Google–Amazon cloud contract involving Israel. Here is what happened, why the workers objected, Google’s defense and what later legal records show.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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Yes. Google fired 28 employees in April 2024 after sit-in protests at company offices over Project Nimbus, a cloud-computing contract involving Google, Amazon Web Services and the Israeli government. Google said the dismissals were for occupying workspaces, blocking access and disrupting colleagues—not for holding political views. The workers said the firings were retaliation for organizing against a contract they believed could support Israeli government and military activities.

What happened at Google?

Employees associated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign staged sit-ins on April 16 and 17, 2024. The demonstrations took place at Google’s Chelsea office in New York, at the office of Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale, California, and at Google’s Seattle office.

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Protesters demanded that Google cancel Project Nimbus. Nine people were reported arrested or detained after refusing to leave company premises. On April 17 or 18, Google announced that it had fired 28 employees. Contemporaneous reporting documented the initial figure. Later reports said additional employees may have been dismissed; the protest group said the total eventually reached 30. The better-established initial figure remains 28.

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Timeline

  • 2021: Google and Amazon were awarded Project Nimbus by Israel.
  • April 16–17, 2024: Employees held sit-ins at Google locations.
  • April 17, 2024: Protesters were arrested or detained after refusing to leave.
  • April 18, 2024: Google announced the termination of 28 employees.
  • April 23, 2024: Further reporting emerged about additional dismissals.
  • April 30, 2024: Workers filed labor charges alleging retaliation and unlawful termination.
  • March 24, 2025: The National Labor Relations Board docket recorded a conformed settlement agreement.
  • February 6, 2026: A related federal case was conditionally dismissed in a settlement-related order.

What is Project Nimbus?

Project Nimbus is commonly described as a $1.2 billion joint Google–Amazon cloud contract awarded by Israel in 2021. It is intended to provide Israeli government bodies with cloud infrastructure, data storage, computing capacity, artificial-intelligence tools and related services.

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Public descriptions of the tender emphasized local cloud infrastructure and security requirements designed to keep data within Israel. Cloud computing is broader than ordinary online file storage: platforms can provide databases, machine-learning systems, analytics, identity management and large-scale computing. Those capabilities can serve ordinary government administration, but they may also be relevant to security, intelligence or military organizations.

That distinction is central. Project Nimbus should not be described as a weapons system or, without specific evidence, as technology that directly powered a particular attack, targeting decision or weapon.

Why did employees oppose the contract?

The No Tech for Apartheid campaign argued that Google’s infrastructure could be used by Israeli government and military bodies. Critics said cloud and AI services could facilitate surveillance, data processing, targeting or other security operations, and argued that employees should not be required to contribute their labor to a project they viewed as connected to human-rights abuses.

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The campaign also alleged that Google had failed to provide sufficient transparency and had retaliated against employees who raised concerns. Those are the workers’ allegations, not findings established by a court in the materials publicly available here.

What did Google say?

Google said the employees were fired because of their conduct inside company facilities. According to Google, protesters occupied offices, physically impeded other employees, blocked access to facilities and created what the company considered an unacceptable or threatening environment. The company denied that it dismissed people simply for expressing political opinions.

Google also said Project Nimbus is a commercial cloud contract and is not directed at highly sensitive, classified or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services. It said Israeli ministries using its commercial cloud must follow Google’s terms of service and acceptable-use policies, and noted that it provides technology services to governments around the world, including Israel. The Washington Post reported Google’s position in detail.

Were the protests peaceful?

The organizers described the actions as peaceful sit-ins. Google said participants disrupted operations, blocked access and prevented employees from doing their jobs. The demonstrations occurred inside company workplaces, and protesters reportedly refused instructions to leave.

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That means the dispute was about both the message and the method. The workers emphasized that they were protesting their employer’s business and alleged retaliation. Google emphasized workplace rules, access restrictions and operational disruption. Saying only that Google fired employees “for protesting” omits Google’s stated reason; saying only that the dismissals concerned office occupation omits the political and labor dispute that produced the protests.

What was the labor-law argument?

The workers argued that their coordinated activity was protected concerted activity under U.S. labor law. Their position was that they were acting with coworkers over the ethical conditions under which they performed their work, employer treatment of dissenting employees and the use of their labor in connection with Project Nimbus.

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Protection is not automatic merely because an action involves multiple employees or a political issue. The legal analysis can depend on whether conduct concerns workplace conditions, whether it occurs during work time or on company property, whether employees were acting as workers or private citizens, and whether blocking access, disrupting operations or refusing instructions caused the activity to lose legal protection.

Workers filed charges with the NLRB alleging unlawful retaliation and termination. The available materials do not support a definitive conclusion that the firings violated labor law.

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What happened in court and before the NLRB?

The NLRB’s public case page lists a conformed settlement agreement dated March 24, 2025. The publicly available docket information does not establish all of the agreement’s terms or confirm whether every dismissed worker was covered.

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A related federal case in the Northern District of California was conditionally dismissed on February 6, 2026. The order provided that the dismissal could be vacated if a party certified that agreed consideration had not been delivered. That is a settlement-related dismissal, not a ruling resolving the underlying allegations on their merits.

Accordingly, the public record cited here does not establish that Google admitted wrongdoing, that all workers were reinstated, that every claim ended on identical terms, or that Project Nimbus was canceled.

What is established—and what remains disputed?

Established by reporting or docket records Disputed or requiring attribution
Google fired an initial group of 28 employees after the April 2024 sit-ins. Whether the sit-ins were legally protected activity.
Protests occurred at Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale and Seattle. Whether the conduct materially obstructed operations to the extent Google claimed.
Project Nimbus involves Google, Amazon and Israel. Whether Nimbus directly supports specific military operations.
Workers filed labor complaints alleging retaliation. Whether Google admitted liability through the settlement.
The NLRB docket records a March 2025 settlement. The settlement’s scope, compensation, reinstatement provisions and other terms.

Why the dispute matters

The episode brings together three questions that should not be confused:

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  1. What does the contract provide? Project Nimbus is a commercial cloud program supplying infrastructure and related services to Israeli government bodies.
  2. How might the technology be used? Critics argue that general-purpose cloud and AI infrastructure can support military, intelligence or surveillance functions. Google disputes that Nimbus is directed at sensitive military or weapons-related workloads.
  3. Were the firings lawful? That question concerns labor protections, coordinated employee activity and the conduct and location of the protests—not simply whether the workers held political opinions.

The controversy also illustrates why cloud contracts can become labor and governance issues. A cloud provider may supply general-purpose tools rather than a named weapons platform, yet employees may still view the infrastructure as materially connected to government power. At the same time, a company may enforce workplace rules even when employees are protesting a matter of public importance. The facts of the contract, the potential uses of the technology and the legality of the dismissals require separate analysis.

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