A senior Google executive quits in protest over a deal between the company and Israel
Ariel Koren accused the company of aggressive practices against its employees who voice their opinions about its policies.
Ariel Koren, director of marketing for Google’s education products department, announced in a letter her intention to leave the company at the end of the week and said that “Google is consistently silencing Palestinian and Jewish voices.”
In a letter posted to her Twitter account, Ariel Koren, 28, said she had no choice but to resign this week due to retaliatory measures, hostile environment and illegal actions. of the company against her and many other employees with the aim of silencing them.
“I am leaving @Google this week due to retaliation and hostility against workers speaking out,” Koren tweeted. “Google moved my role overseas immediately after I objected to its billion-dollar artificial intelligence/surveillance contracts with Israel. And this is far from an isolated case.
She noted that she has always seen Google work systematically to silence Palestinian, Jewish, Arab and Muslim voices. She further expressed concern about Google’s complicity in violations of Palestinian rights, to the point of formally retaliating against employees and creating an environment
The controversy began when Koren denounced the huge deal Google struck with the Tel Aviv government in 2021 worth $1 billion under the “Nimbus” project, which provides Israel and its army of artificial intelligence tools and other IT services.
The New York Times reported that the company threatened Ariel in November 2021 that she would agree to move to Sao Paulo, Brazil within 17 working days or lose her job.
Ariel Koren, who is Jewish, has worked for the company for more than seven years, has helped distribute petitions to lobbying executives and spoke to news outlets, trying to convince Google to reconsider the deal.
