Google: Google to expand in Israel amid calls for the tech giant to 'boycott' Israel

Nov 15, 2021 | Posted by MadalineDunn

Google has announced that it will be expanding its data center footprint in Israel, building its fourth facility in the Sharon region near Moshav Beit Yehoshua. This development has come about following the tech giant winning the government's Nimbus cloud tender. 

Google already has leases for building data centers at Petah Tikva, Modi'in, and Bnei Zion. This contract will mean that Google's data centers will be providing services to Israel's government ministries, including the Israel Defense Forces. This has been a controversial and contentious matter for many due to alleged human rights abuses on the part of the Israeli government against Palestinians. 

As a result, many of Google's Jewish employees have hit out at the contract, arguing that the deal means that the tech company will be in some ways complicit in Palestinian discrimination. 

Speaking further on this, The Jewish Diaspora in Tech group outlined: "Many of Israel's actions violate the UN human rights principles, which Google is committed to upholding. We request the review of all Alphabet business contracts and corporate donations and the termination of contracts with institutions that support Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, such as the Israel Defense Forces."

A group of more than 400 Amazon and Google employees have signed an open letter calling for the two companies to cease working with Israel's military and cancel project Nimbus. The letter, published in The Guardian, outlines: "We condemn Amazon and Google’s decision to sign the Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli military and government and ask them to reject this contract and future contracts that will harm our users."

Adding: "The technology our companies have contracted to build will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueler and deadlier for Palestinian."

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