The protests were organized by a group called No Tech For Apartheid, which has been pushing for Google to drop its $1.2 billion cloud contract with the Israeli government. The demonstrators, some of whom were arrested for trespassing, held banners with messages such as "No more genocide for profit" and "Googlers against genocide." The group claimed that Google fired the employees “indiscriminately” and accused the company of valuing its contract with the Israeli government more than its workers.

The fired employees, some of whom were not directly involved in the sit-ins, were placed on administrative leave and had their work accounts locked. One protester, Cheyne Anderson, a Google Cloud software engineer, expressed opposition to Google taking any military contracts, regardless of the government involved. Another protester, Hasan Ibraheem, said he felt a responsibility to act against the Nimbus project, which provides cloud services to the Israeli government.

Google defended the Nimbus contract, stating that it is not directed at highly sensitive or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence services. The company emphasized that the contract is for workloads running on their commercial cloud and complies with their terms of service and acceptable use policy. The protests come amid ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, with Gaza's Ministry of Health reporting nearly 34,000 Palestinian deaths as a result of the war.

The demonstrations at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale involved employees staging sit-ins inside Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office and other areas of the buildings. The protesters demanded that Google cease providing cloud and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government, accusing the company of supporting genocide in Gaza. The protests were part of a broader campaign by activist organizations and individuals who do not work at Google.

The firing of the 28 employees sparked further criticism from No Tech For Apartheid, which condemned Google for retaliating against workers who were peacefully protesting. The group vowed to continue pushing for Google to drop the Project Nimbus contract and cease its business ties with the Israeli government. The protests reflect a growing trend of employee activism within tech companies, with workers using their platforms to advocate for social justice causes and hold their employers accountable.