In a recent development, Google fired 28 employees who participated in a sit-down protest over the company’s $1.2 billion agreement with Israel.

The protest, organized by the “No Tech for Apartheid” group, took place on Tuesday across Google offices in New York City, Seattle, Sunnyvale and California.

The employees who staged sit-in demonstrations at Google protested against Google’s involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through “Project Nimbus.”

The employees wore shirts that read “Drop Project Nimbus,” and a banner was hung that read, “No tech for genocide.”

They sat in the office of Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian on Tuesday and remained there for about 10 hours.

According to reports, Project Nimbus is a billion-dollar deal signed in 2021, which grants the Israeli Government access to Google’s advanced cloud computing services and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

This includes AI-enabled facial detection, automated image categorization and object tracking services.

However, the protests escalated when some employees refused to leave Kurian’s office. This resulted in their arrest by law enforcement and subsequent removal from the premises.

Soon after an internal investigation, Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow announced the termination of 28 employees in a company memo.

“They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive and threatened co-workers,” the memo reads. “Behavior like this has no place in our workplace, and we will not tolerate it. It violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to, including our code of conduct and policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns.”

Jane Chung, one of the protest group’s spokespersons, criticized the company’s decision to fire its employees.

“This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its workers – the ones who create real value for executives and shareholders,” Chung said. “Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian are genocide profiteers. We cannot comprehend how these men can sleep at night while their tech has enabled 100,000 Palestinians killed, reported missing, or wounded in the last six months of Israel’s genocide and counting.”

According to an NYPD spokesperson, the protest consisted of approximately 50 participants and four arrests were made for trespassing inside the Google building.

Meanwhile, in California, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said the protest comprised around 80 participants.

Authorities arrested five protesters who refused to leave the Google office. They were charged with criminal trespassing.