More than 1,100 self-identified STEM students and young workers from over 120 universities have signed a pledge that they will not take jobs or internships at Google or Amazon until these companies end their participation in Project Nimbus. $1.2 billion contract Providing cloud computing services and infrastructure to the Israeli government.
The pledgers included Undergraduate and postgraduate students from Stanford, UC Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University. Some students from these schools also participated in a campaign against Project Nimbus Rally on Wednesday With tech workers and activists outside Google’s San Francisco office.
Amazon and Google are top employers for graduates from top STEM schools, According to the data From Career Services College Transitions, which was compiled using publicly available data from LinkedIn. dataAs of 2024, 485 UC Berkeley graduates and 216 Stanford graduates work at Google.
The pledge, which represents the latest backlash against Google and Amazon, was organized by No Tech for Apartheid (NOTA), a coalition of tech workers and activists from the Muslim grassroots movement MPower Change and the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace. Since 2021, NOTA has advocated for Google and Amazon to boycott and divest from Project Nimbus and any other work for the Israeli government.
“Palestinians already suffer from Israeli surveillance and violence,” It is written in the pledge“By expanding public cloud computing capacity and providing their cutting-edge technology to the Israeli occupation government and military, Amazon and Google are helping make Israeli apartheid more efficient, more violent, and even deadlier for Palestinians.”
Sam, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of professional repercussions, says he signed the letter as a 2023 graduate of Cornell University’s computer science master’s program and a recent member of the tech workforce.
He told WIRED that he was inspired to do this work after seeing friends in graduate school who “thought one way privately” but then “went on to careers at these big tech firms.”
“I know a lot of people who have no values, but when someone looks at the starting salary, it puts your principles to the test a bit,” Sam said.
Naomi Hardy-Najji, a communications major and computer science student at the University of San Francisco, said she heard about the letter while attending a seminar at the school. Three-week camp Disclosure and divestment demanded from companies funding the war in Gaza.
Hardy-Nujie said she signed the letter because executives at Google and Amazon have been reluctant to address protesters’ demands. But she said change “must start from the bottom.”
NOTA has organized a number of actions targeting Project Nimbus over the past several months. Eddie HatfieldNOTA’s organiser, was fired from Google in March because he Managing Director of Google Israel interrupted At a Google-sponsored technology conference in New York. More than 50 were employees of Google was later fired following a Protest against Project Nimbus The event, held at Google’s New York and Sunnyvale offices, was also organized by NOTA.
Google has claimed that Project Nimbus is not “directed” to secret or military work, but various Document leak has tied up The contract involves working for the Israeli military. Google and Amazon did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
