Anti-Israel activists protesting Google contracts with the Israeli government by occupying the technology giant’s office in New York City and Sunnyvale for several hours on Tuesday, were arrested and put on administrative leave, according to a Google spokesperson.
Protesters were arrested by police officers after refusing to leave Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s Sunnyvale office or New York City Chelsea workspace for almost 10 hours. The sit-in protests were live-streamed by the No Tech for Apartheid activist movement, which claims to represent technology company employees against business with the State of Israel.
“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and we will investigate and take action,” a Google spokesperson said. “These employees were put on administrative leave and their access to our systems was cut. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”
