New York, Europe Brief News – A Google Jewish worker was moved to Brazil shortly after she objected to Google’s Israel military contract.
Ariel Koren said that the decision to move her came after she criticized and lobbied other employees against Project Nimbus.
The contract worth $1.2 billion that Google and Amazon Web Services jointly entered with Israel.
Google responded by relocating her role from its headquarters in Mountain View, California, to its office in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
More than 500 Google workers have rallied behind their colleague. They further signed a petition accusing Google leadership of “unjustly retaliating” against Ariel Koren.
“Ariel’s case is consistent with Google’s dangerous track record of worker retaliation that made mainstream headlines in the past years. It specifically target those speaking out against contracts that enable state violence against marginalized people,” the petition said.
Google said it investigated the incident and found no evidence of retaliation.
The Mountain View, Calif., corporation has weathered several high-profile retaliation claims, as some workers have become more concerned about and openly critical of company policy, its handling of alleged sexual misconduct and other issues.
They include internal criticism of the company’s work with immigration authorities and the allegations of Timnit Gebru.
In October, Koren had been one of two Jewish Google employees to spearhead an employee petition against Project Nimbus.
The statement objected to the contract by saying the project, which will transfer the Israeli government’s data to cloud-based storage centers over a period of several years, “allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land.”
