This afternoon, Amazon tech workers were joined by dozens of supporters to protest Amazon’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli military and government in front of Amazon’s annual cloud computing conference, the AWS Summit.
Supporters in attendance included: Amazon warehouse workers including co-founders of the Amazon Labor Union, Alphabet tech worker members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, and local human rights activists from MPower Change, Jewish Voice for Peace, Adalah Justice Project, Fight for the Future, and the Athena Coalition.
Part of a campaign called #NoTechforApartheid organized by tech workers, civil society, and community members, these protests represent the rapidly growing movement of tech workers taking public action against these contracts. This protest also takes place during the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, or the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
“As an Amazon employee, I do not want my work to support apartheid and war crimes. This contract will directly accelerate the expansion of surveillance tech, the weaponization of AI, and the proliferation of cyber weapons. As an employee, it’s my responsibility to speak out against it, and as a Palestinian, it is my duty. Allowing this contract to be implemented without protest would be a major disservice to the world,” said Alestin Sphere, an Amazon Software Engineer.
During the keynote of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit, five protestors interrupted Swami Sivasubramanian, AWS VP of Databases, Analytics, and Machine Learning’s keynote speech to bring awareness to the devastating potential of the technology these contracts involve.
“Today I’m joining my co-workers as both a first-generation Palestinian-American and Amazon engineer to ensure that the tech we build and sell doesn’t harm our own communities and those of our users through contracts like Project Nimbus. Through this contract, Amazon and Google enable the same kind of violence that the Israeli government and military inflicts on many Palestinians, similar to the violence my own father and family experienced as they were ethnically cleansed from their homes. Amazon cannot continue justifying this contract. As an Amazon worker, I want a real say in my labor. I don’t want my labor to be used to inflict the same violence and suffering that my family has faced on anyone else,” said Laith Abad, an Amazon Software Engineer.
Amazon spokesperson Rob Munoz told The Ritz Herald, “AWS is focused on making the benefits of our world-leading cloud technology available to all our customers, wherever they are located. We respect our employees’ right to express themselves without fear of retaliation, intimidation or harassment.”
This action follows almost two years of activism by Amazon and Google workers to pressure their respective companies to cancel their cloud contracts with Israel. Last September, on the heels of Google worker Ariel Koren’s forced resignation, Amazon and Google tech workers led protests with hundreds in attendance in front of their offices in New York City, San Francisco, Durham, and Seattle to escalate the pressure on their companies to drop the contracts.
“At today’s AWS Summit, Amazon aims to bring together thousands of cloud enthusiasts for ‘a day of collaboration’ while it simultaneously profits from surveillance, land grabs, & deadly violence against the Palestinian people. Tech is inherently political—it doesn’t exist in some magical vacuum outside of ethics and power. That’s why for almost two years, Amazon’s own tech workers have been clear: they don’t want their labor to enable this suffering. Tech companies are the new war profiteers: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was head of AWS in May 2021 when he approved the contract and while the Israeli military systematically bombed Palestinian homes, hospitals, & schools in Gaza. Jassy can still choose to put people over profit, listen to his own workers, & cut ties with Israel’s brutal military occupation. It’s our duty to show up with workers today to say No Tech For Apartheid together,” said Lau Barrios, Senior Campaign Manager at MPower Change.
“Today tech workers at Amazon and Google are standing together to stop their employers from developing technology that is being used to violate human rights of people around the world. Amazon’s lucrative contract with a racist, right-wing Israeli government is yet another clear statement that the corporation is willing to go to dangerous lengths for profit. While Amazon has come under intense scrutiny for its worker and antitrust abuses, less is understood about its dealings with militaries and right-wing governments. By disrupting Amazon’s annual summit in New York City, tech workers are hoping to shine a spotlight on Amazon’s big tech war profiteering,“ said Ryan Gerety, Director of the Amazon-focused Athena Coalition.
Citing the well-documented human rights abuses and violations of international law committed by the Israeli government and military against Palestinians, thousands of workers at Amazon and Google have called on their companies to stop working on Project Nimbus, based on the potential for this technology to be used to surveil, oppress, or commit other forms of violence against Palestinians. Tens of thousands of others have joined those workers’ calls.
“Leading human rights organizations have confirmed what Palestinians have been saying for decades: that Israel is an apartheid state based on Jewish supremacy, where Israeli Jews have more rights and freedoms than Palestinians. Amazon technology can all too easily be used by the Israeli government to entrench its apartheid system: expand Jewish-only settlements, force Palestinian families off of their land, and destroy their homes. Amazon tech workers are bravely saying no more—they want their labor to help people, not enable violence against Palestinians. As Jews organizing for Palestinian freedom, we are proud to show up in solidarity with tech workers standing up for Palestinian rights,” said Dani Noble, Campaigns Organizer at Jewish Voice for Peace.
“This month workers at Sierra Club, the largest environmental organization in the U.S., passed a resolution affirming their support for Palestine and pledging to investigate their union investments to ensure they are not invested in Israeli apartheid. This week Amazon and Google workers are rallying around a two-year long campaign to end their employers surveillance and military- tech contracts with apartheid Israel. Workers in the US, from UPS and Sierra Club to Amazon and Google, are demonstrating worker power by demanding better wages, benefits, and a say in how their labor is used— and in the tech world that means workers are refusing to use their labor to uphold Israeli apartheid. You cannot divorce workers from the product of their labor, and they’re making it clear: no tech for apartheid,” said Sumaya Awad, Director of Strategy & Communications at Adalah Justice Project.
“The struggles for freedom and self-determination in the US and Palestine are linked, not only because of the shared hopes and demands of the people, but also because these struggles are shared, people are resisting the same corporate actors – Amazon and Google. These corporations wield their tech weapons to enact state violence against our people through surveillance, incarceration, and forced displacement, upholding long legacies of racism and white supremacy. We demand no tech for apartheid, no tech for police and ICE, and the right to our collective liberation,” said Danny Cendejas, National Field Organizer at MediaJustice.
To date, Amazon and Google executives have ignored their workers’ demands. Workers describe the contract as “part of a disturbing pattern of militarization, lack of transparency and avoidance of oversight.”
