As salaamu alaykum, Indiana—
It's no secret that university campuses across the country serve as a tech talent recruitment pipeline for corporate giants like Google and Amazon.
That's why undergraduate and graduate students across the country just launched a pledge refusing to take jobs or internships at Amazon and Google for their role in powering Israeli apartheid and violence against the Palestinian people.
As the Israeli military dropped bombs on Gaza last May, Amazon and Google signed a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud services to the Israeli military and government. Through the Project Nimbus contract, Amazon and Google are strengthening Israel's military occupation and apartheid rule over Palestinians, as such tech could be used to further surveil and criminalize Palestinians, expand illegal settlements, and inflict violence on Palestinians in Gaza.
Amazon and Google pour millions into recruiting top talent to continue growing their profits. These companies rely on the labor of young researchers, programmers, marketers, and engineers to remain competitive—and particularly want to recruit BIPOC students to project the image of progressivism and diversity.
Build student power at your campus: Add your name to the #NoTechForApartheid pledge here.
While Amazon and Google publicize their commitment to diverse and inclusive recruiting practices, these companies simultaneously provide technology that harms marginalized communities through mass surveillance, undertake partnerships with police departments, ICE and militaries, and enable Israeli apartheid against Palestinians.
That's why students at UCLA, Princeton, Columbia, Barnard, and more have just come together to launch the #NoTechForApartheid student pledge and build power at their universities to cut the tech-talent pipeline.
Divestment has historically been a key strategy in student activism. In addition to helping dismantle apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s through their activism, students continue to stand up to destructive corporations that are complicit in human rights violations.
We have an obligation to continue this practice in order to support Palestinian human rights and dismantle the Israeli apartheid regime.
Thank you for everything that you do to further justice.
In solidarity,
Sadaf, Lau, Ishraq and the MPower Change team
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