Tech Cooperation: This Is How Apple and Google Stand Alongside 'Israel'

The issue of Google's contract with the Israeli government in Project Nimbus for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services, which provides tech services that will contribute to monitoring Palestinians and promoting apartheid, continues to raise interaction in the United States, especially after law enforcement authorities recently arrested some Google employees protesting the contract, and the company subsequently fired dozens of them.

On the other hand, hundreds of current and former Apple employees accused the company of illegally terminating the work of a number of its employees and taking disciplinary measures against others because they wore clothes that expressed their support for Palestine.

Apple has close relations with "Israel" and supports it on several levels, as Apple has its own research and development institution in the occupied Palestinian territories, specifically in northern Tel Aviv.

It is noteworthy that last October, Google, Apple, and Waze had disabled live traffic updates for the areas of "Israel" and the Gaza Strip at the request of the Israeli army, prior to the start of the military operation in the Strip, according to Bloomberg.

No Tech For Apartheid

In May 2021, Google executives signed a contract with the Israeli government worth $1.22 billion to provide cloud tech, while the Israeli Occupation Forces were bombing homes, clinics, and schools in Gaza and threatening to expel Palestinian families from their homes in occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the West Bank.

However, protests and objections by Google employees to Project Nimbus escalated following the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, in addition to exposing the methods used by the Israeli army to target Palestinians and commit massacres against them through the use of AI techniques.

This prompted more than 200 Google employees to launch a global boycott and organization entitled "No Tech For Apartheid" in order to pressure Google and Amazon to stop providing the Israeli Occupation with technical projects that help it carry out genocide against the Palestinians.

The organization said it seeks to confront unscrupulous tech companies and their vast digital arsenals and expose tech's role in criminal justice and law enforcement.

In a statement issued after the Gaza war, the organization stated that Google is the beneficiary of the war and that it directly aids and incites the genocide committed by "Israel" in Gaza.

Among the accusations leveled by the organization against Google is that it is deliberately colluding with the Israeli Occupation Forces in their massacre of the Palestinians, which leads to deepening its relationship with a country that carries out genocide that is broadcast live 24 hours a day, seven days a week for more than 6 months.

Last year, the organization organized several demonstrations following the Israeli war on Gaza in October, where demonstrators carried banners reading "No more genocide for profit."

The organization called for the use of tech for humanitarian purposes and not to enable apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and settler colonialism.

No Tech for Apartheid also published an open letter cosigned by 18 other organizations that demands Google and Amazon immediately cancel their work on Project Nimbus.

In addition to Project Nimbus, the letter cited recent reports that the Israeli Occupation Forces have used Google Photos to identify and detain Palestinians in the West Bank.

In the recent protests that took place at Google offices in cities including New York, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, California, on April 16, employees entered the offices and refused to leave, which prompted Google to summon law enforcement authorities, and nine of them were arrested on charges of trespassing.

The next day, Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, fired 28 employees who participated in the protests against Project Nimbus, according to Bloomberg.

Project Nimbus

Google issued a strong warning to its employees, noting that its project for the Israeli government is largely intended for civilian purposes and is not directed to intelligence services and is far from military plans related to weapons.

This news comes after recent reports in the Israeli media indicated that the Israeli army is using an AI-powered system to select targets for air strikes on Gaza.

In particular, Google's contract does not specify which military apps, if any, the Israeli army uses within the company's cloud services.

Previously, +972 magazine reported that the Israeli army used a database supported by a previously undisclosed AI system in its aerial bombardment campaign on the Gaza Strip, which at one stage had identified 37,000 Palestinians as potential targets for assassination.

On its part, Time magazine, citing experts, confirmed that this AI system may require cloud computing infrastructure in order to work.

On April 18, the American magazine said that it had seen the first document confirming that the Israeli military is a customer of Google's cloud computing services.

The document showed that the Israeli military has its own landing zone into Google Cloud, giving them a way to store and process data and access AI services. The agreement, which was dated March 27, also gave the Israeli government a 15% discount on consulting fees.

Within the framework of Project Nimbus, Google will provide cloud computing services that give "Israel" capabilities for facial detection, automated image classification, object tracking, and even sentiment analysis, providing the possibility to police and control Palestinians.

In recent years, the company has fired several researchers who raised concerns about potential biases built into its AI systems.

After working at the company for more than 10 years, Ariel Koren, former Google marketing manager, said in an interview with Gizmodo in August 2022 that she was forced to resign due to her continued objection to a secret cooperation project between the company and "Israel."

On March 4, more than 600 Google employees signed a petition demanding that the company withdraw its sponsorship funding for an Israeli tech conference in New York, with dozens of employees protesting outside the event. 

A few days later, a Google Cloud software engineer interrupted a talk at the conference by Google's managing director for "Israel," calling for an end to Google's work with the Israeli government under Project Nimbus.

The engineer was forcibly removed from the event and then fired by Google the same week.

Double Standards

On the other hand, the American company Apple announced on April 11 its intention to stop suggesting an emoji representing the Palestinian flag when writing the word "Jerusalem" in the text messaging app on iPhone phones after it was accused of bias against "Israel" in its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

Apple confirmed to AFP that the proposed emoji was not intended and will be corrected in the next update to the phone's iOS operating system.

The reason for the attack was what British TV presenter Rachel Riley posted on social media, which sparked controversy again over the Jerusalem issue.

Riley considered that demonstrating double standards with regard to "Israel" is a form of anti-Semitism, which in itself is a form of racism against the Jewish people.

Lawyers supporting "Israel" sent a statement to the company's CEO, Tim Cook, in which they accused the American company of violating non-discrimination laws and that it did not respect the rights of Jewish and Israeli consumers.

Bloggers considered that the matter may be due to the repeated use of the flag next to the word by users, which made the operating system understand the connection between them. While the Israeli Occupation's supporters said that the matter may be due to a human element within the company, and not just a mistake.

This month, nearly 300 current and former Apple employees have published an open letter alleging that several retail and corporate employees of the company have been disciplined or wrongfully terminated for expressing support for Palestinian people through pins, bracelets, or keffiyeh.

The group, which calls itself "Apples4Ceasefire," protested this month outside Apple's retail store in Lincoln Park, Chicago. 

"A Palestinian retail employee at that location was wrongly fired for wearing clothing and accessories showing support for Palestinian people," the group said.

The group's letter called on Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives to acknowledge the many deaths in Gaza from the Israeli Occupation's assault on the territory in response to the Hamas attacks of October 7.

Cook sent an email to Apple employees two days after Hamas attacked, expressing sympathy for those who died or were bereaved, the letter noted. 

"After over 150 days of violence against innocent Palestinian lives, there has yet to be a message sent expressing the same kind of concern for them," the letter added.