Amazon and Google accused of facilitating "world's first AI-powered genocide" in Gaza
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Amazon and Google have been accused of aiding and abetting Israel's genocide in Gaza in a new submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.
The Abolitionist Law Center in its submission accused Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud of complicity in genocide, unlawful occupation, and apartheid through their $1.2-billion Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli government.
Under the contract, the companies provide cloud computing and other tech services which enable the Israeli government and military to surveil and target civilians in Gaza as well as facilitate the illegal confiscation of Palestinian land and resources, according to the filing.
After signing a $1-million contract for consulting services with the Israeli Ministry of Defense in March 2024, Google Maps disabled its real-time crowding data – including live traffic and business information – in Israel and Gaza, reportedly at the direction of the Israeli Defense Forces.
"What has become abundantly clear, especially over this last year, is private actors' intimate involvement in facilitating Israel's genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people," Sadaf Doost, the Abolitionist Law Center’s International Human Rights Program manager and staff attorney, said in a press release.
"As journalists, organizers, and human and civil rights organizations continue to investigate the degree of Big Tech's involvement in Israel's crimes more generally – what we do know is that Amazon and Google have, and continue to, equip the Israeli government and military with the infrastructure to target and kill Palestinians in Gaza, and further advance Israel’s military occupation and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory in violation of customary international law," Doost added.
The use of this technology has not come without resistance. Since its inception, Project Nimbus has faced protests from Amazon and Google workers, united under the No Tech for Apartheid Campaign.
Amazon Web Services and Google urged to answer for their role in Israel's crimes
The Abolitionist Law Center listed several recommendations in its submission. These include requesting the companies to provide information on their role in furthering Israel's crimes, their efforts to mitigate human rights violations linked to their products and services, and the use of their AI technology to assist in the targeting of Palestinians.
The US – along with Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands – should also be asked to detail what it has done to investigate, prevent, and punish the companies for assisting in Israel's crimes.
Israel has killed at least 44,502 people in Gaza since October 2023, according to the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, upwards of 186,000 as of July 2024.
Last January, the International Court of Justice ruled there is a plausible case Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Genocide as well as complicity in genocide are punishable crimes under the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which the US is a state party.
The International Criminal Court last month issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Amazon and Google are enabling the world's first AI-powered genocide via Project Nimbus. Despite overwhelming evidence supporting this claim, Google executives continue to lie to us, the company’s own workers, about the true nature of the Project Nimbus contract," said workers with the No Tech for Apartheid Campaign.
"We will not stop organizing our coworkers until Amazon and Google drop the Nimbus contract, and we call all Google and Amazon workers of conscience to join us in ensuring our labor does not power genocide and state violence."
Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire