Amazon, Google employees urge their companies to cut contracts with Israel

In a historic campaign, Google and Amazon employees have urged their respective companies to pull out of contracts with the Israeli government and its military, which they said contributed to the "systematic discrimination" and "displacement" of Palestinians.

In a Guardian column on Tuesday, more than 300 Amazon and nearly 100 Google employees said they felt "morally obligated" to speak out against contracts with Israel, known as Project Nimbus.

The workers, who referred to themselves as "employees of conscience from diverse backgrounds", described the contracts as "[selling] dangerous technology to the Israeli military and government".

"This contract was signed the same week that the Israeli military attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – killing nearly 250 people, including more than 60 children," the workers wrote.

"The technology our companies have contracted to build will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueller and deadlier for Palestinians," they added.

The cloud services will help Israel illegally collect data on Palestinians, the workers said, that will be used to further policies that US-based NGO Human Rights Watch says constitute crimes of apartheid. 

A deal was signed between Google and Amazon with Israel in May to set up cloud-based regional data centres in Israel.

Israeli officials said the agreement will ensure continuity of service even if the tech giants come under pressure from rights campaigners to boycott the country.

The announcement came as Jewish employees of Google asked managed to review the contract and corporate donations with "institutions that support Israeli violations of Palestinian rights".