More than 1,100 STEM students and young workers from more than 120 universities have signed a pledge not to accept jobs or internships at Google or Amazon until the companies end their participation in Project Nimbus, a Contract worth $1.2 billion Providing cloud computing services and infrastructure for the Israeli government.
Contractors included Undergraduate and graduate students From Stanford University, UC Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University. Some students from those schools also participated in an anti-Nimbus campaign Gathered on Wednesday Outside Google’s San Francisco office with tech workers and activists.
Amazon and Google are two of the best employers for graduates from top STEM schools. According to the data From the career service College Transitions, compiled using publicly available data from LinkedIn. According to the DataAs of 2024, Google employs 485 UC Berkeley graduates and 216 Stanford graduates.
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 grassroots Islamist movement MPower Change and the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace. Since 2021, NOTA has called on Google and Amazon to boycott and divest from the Nimbus project and any other work of the Israeli government.
“Palestinians are already harmed by Israeli surveillance and violence.” reads the pledge. “By expanding the computing power of the public cloud and providing cutting-edge technology to the Israeli occupation government and military, Amazon and Google are helping to make Israeli apartheid more efficient, more violent, and even more deadly to Palestinians.”
Sam, who asked that only his first name be used 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 technology workforce.
He told WIRED magazine that he was inspired to act after watching friends from graduate school “think one way in private,” but then “went on to work at these big tech companies.”
“I know a lot of people who — not that they have a price tag, but when someone looks at the starting salary, it will test your principles a little bit,” Sam said.
Naomi Hardy-Nji, a communications and computer science minor at the University of San Francisco, said she heard about the message while participating in a conference organized by the school. Three-week camp Demanding disclosure and divestment from companies financing the war in Gaza.
Hardy-Njie said she signed the letter because executives at Google and Amazon were reticent to deal with the protesters’ demands. But she said change “must start from the bottom up.”
NOTA has organized several actions targeting the Nimbus project over the past few months. Eddie Hatfieldone of the organizers of NOTA, was fired from Google in March after doing so interrupted Google’s manager in Israel At a Google-sponsored tech conference in New York. More than 50 It was Google workers Launched later after A protest sit-in against the Nimbus project at Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, which was also organized by NOTA.
Google claimed Project Nimbus is “not directed” to secret or military actions, however diverse Document leaks I have linked Employment contract in the Israeli army. Google and Amazon did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.