Mayor Eric Adams attends pro-Israel NYC tech conference as Palestinian protests make their mark
New York, New York - A high-profile conference in Manhattan themed "Stand With Israeli Tech" was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, including a Google engineer who said he refused to build "tech for apartheid."
As reported by Caroline Haskins, a journalist with the independent news website Hell Gate, Monday's MindTheTech event was marred by several flashpoints.
The conference, organized by Israeli business publication Calcalist, featured a who's who of Israel's finance and high-tech sector, including representatives from Google and Amazon.
Also present were Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon and his New York counterpart, Eric Adams.
Leon, who governs a city that includes the effectively-annexed East Jerusalem – meant to be capital of a future Palestinian state – warmly thanked Adams "for everything you do for Israel."
For his part, the Democrat returned the gratitude and called New York "the Tel Aviv of America."
Google Israel director's speech interrupted by protesters
According to Haskins, protests began just minutes into a speech given by Google Israel's managing director, Barak Regev.
A person stood up and shouted, "I'm a Google software engineer and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance."
Referring to Google's hugely controversial $1.2-billion contract with the Israeli military, the engineer continued: "Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger! I refuse to build technology that is going to be used for cloud apartheid. No tech for apartheid! Stop the genocide!"
After being quickly removed by security, a second protester interrupted Regev, accusing Google of being "complicit in genocide."
At the end of the presentation, Haskins says she was accosted by a security guard outside the main conference hall and told she had to leave the premises.
Without further explanation, the guard pushed her out of the venue, having first tried to take her phone.
AI in Israel's war on Gaza
On the same day, Haskins revealed for Wired that more than 600 Google employees addressed a letter to management, demanding that the company stop its sponsorship of MindTheTech, in view of Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza that has killed well over 30,000 people.
It comes as the long-established link between tech, AI, and Israeli domination of Palestinians reaches a chilling peak in the war started after the October 7 Hamas attack.
Israel has long marketed it cutting-edge surveillance and military technologies as "battle-tested" in Palestinian territories, but the synergy has reached a new level in Gaza.
Reports have revealed the wide-spread use of AI to produce targets for bombing – even as those targets produce grossly disproportionate civilian death tolls.
Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire