The protests were against a cloud computing contract that Google had secured with the Israeli government.

Tensions escalated between the company’s management and some employees over "Project Nimbus," a $1.2 billion deal between Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud services, including artificial intelligence, according to The New York Times.

The controversy over this deal has been brewing since its announcement in 2021, with protesting employees expressing concerns over assisting the Israeli military.

This discontent intensified following the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October last year.

Last Tuesday, 9 employees were arrested for "trespassing on others' property" in the New York and Sunnyvale offices. In New York's Chelsea office, some protestors staged a sit-in on the tenth floor, while in Sunnyvale, employees occupied the office of Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, refusing to leave.

A Google spokesperson stated, "Obstructing the work of other employees and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and is absolutely unacceptable."

Employees affiliated with the group organizing the sit-ins, named "No Tech for Apartheid," described the firings as "a blatant act of retaliation." They asserted, "Google workers have the right to peacefully protest the terms and conditions of their employment." They also mentioned that some of the dismissed employees did not participate in the sit-ins.

The group opposes technological dealings with Israel.

In response to the protests, Anna Kowalsik, Director of External Communications for Google Cloud, clarified that Project Nimbus "has nothing to do with the Israeli military" and is not intended for "highly sensitive, classified or military work related to weapons or intelligence apparatus."