Google employee resigns over $1bn contract with Israeli occupation army
Koren said she resigned as a result of a hostile work environment fostered by Google due to her social activism.
Washington (QNN) – Ariel Koren, a Google employee who became a high-profile opponent of the giant’s $1 billion artificial intelligence and surveillance contract with the Israeli occupation army, announced yesterday her resignation from the tech giant.
Koren, a marketing manager with Google, said she resigned as a result of a hostile work environment fostered by Google due to her social activism.
“I am leaving @Google this week due to retaliation & hostility against workers who speak out,” tweeted Koren. “Google moved my role overseas immediately after I opposed its $1B AI/surveillance contracts with Israel. And this is far from an isolated instance.”
“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.”
The controversy began when Koren protested Google’s $1.2 billion collaboration with Amazon and the Israeli military on a program called Project Nimbus.
She spent more than a year organizing against Project Nimbus, a $1.2bn agreement for Google and Amazon to supply Israel and its military with cloud and computing services.
Instead of listening to her concerns, Koren said Google blindsided her in November 2021 with an ultimatum: either agree to move from San Francisco in the US state of California to Sao Paulo, Brazil, or lose your job.
Koren said there was no business justification for the mandated move and filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In a post written Tuesday on the publishing platform Medium, Koren said her outspoken social activism prompted Google to stifle her by relocating her employment overseas.
“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,” she wrote with the headline “Google’s Complicity in Israeli Apartheid: How Google Weaponizes ‘Diversity’ to Silence Palestinians and Palestinian Human Rights Supporters.”
Koren, who has worked for Google for more than seven years, said Google’s actions to stifle outspoken workers — not just herself — has been a normal practice over the years.
“I have consistently witnessed that instead of supporting diverse employees looking to make Google a more ethical company, Google systematically silences Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim voices concerned about Google’s complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights — to the point of formally retaliating against workers and creating an environment of fear,” she emphasized in her post.
