Google 'playing with fire' by acquiring Israeli company founded by Unit 8200 veterans

 

Google's $32bn purchase of Israeli cloud security company Wiz is its most expensive ever acquisition

Google employees and human rights groups have raised concerns about the tech giant’s purchase of an Israeli start-up in an unprecedented $32bn deal.

Google on Tuesday announced the all-cash acquisition of Wiz, an Israeli cloud security firm which was founded by former members of Unit 8200, an elite Israeli army cyber-espionage and surveillance unit.

The deal comes with the Google already facing internal and external pressure over its controversial Project Nimbus contract, through which along with Amazon it provides cloud computing and AI services to the Israeli government and military.

A spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid, a coalition of Google and Amazon workers campaigning against the companies' involvement with Israel, said Google was "playing with fire" by buying Wiz. 

"This acquisition marks a continuation of Google’s brazen support for the Israeli apartheid system," a spokesperson told Middle East Eye.

"Instead of heeding workers’ calls to divest, Google is doubling down by investing in the colonial, racist, apartheid project of the so-called Israeli state. Google workers vehemently oppose this investment and continue to reject Project Nimbus.”

The spokesperson accused Google’s leadership of being “all too eager to establish the company as the backbone of the US-Israeli war machine” and described the acquisition of Wiz as a "performative overture" towards US President Donald Trump.  (more...)

Google 'playing with fire' by acquiring Israeli company founded by Unit 8200 veterans

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