Google Planned to Sponsor IDF Conference That Now Denies Google Was Sponsor (theintercept.com)
from Linkerbaan@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 25 Jul 2024 21:40
https://lemmy.world/post/17954333

The “IT For IDF” conference in Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv, brought together tech firms from across the world to support the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and beyond.

Many of the assembled companies are not household names in the United States, but several multinational firms — like Nokia, Dell, and Canon — were present at July 10 event.

The mission they had gathered to support was clear. Onstage, a brigadier general with the Israeli military gave a presentation that connected the Nakba, the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, the current war on Gaza, and more wars in the decades to come. His call to action splashed across the big screen: “Each generation and its own turn — this is our watch!”

One company, however, was conspicuously absent: Google.

For the last two years, Google had been a marquee sponsor of IT For IDF — the company is a natural partner for the event, given Google Cloud’s foundational role in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract aimed at modernizing cloud computing operations across Israeli government that it shares with Amazon.

#technology

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kibiz0r@midwest.social on 25 Jul 2024 22:46 next collapse

Nimbus

Wow, really? Making saintly allusions towards any government is fraught, but especially this one.

Hegar@fedia.io on 26 Jul 2024 01:46 collapse

I think the allusion is probably to clouds, given that project nimbus is amazon and google cloud updating the israeli government's cloud computing and nimbus is latin for cloud. The israeli government is generally not as big on christian metaphors as the US government is.

kibiz0r@midwest.social on 26 Jul 2024 03:19 collapse

Yeah, for sure that’s the primary allusion. But the fact that there’s a secondary meaning which is explicitly religious and moral is… more than a little awkward.

carl_dungeon@lemmy.world on 26 Jul 2024 01:47 collapse

Fuck Google and fuck Israel. Jack boot wearing nazis.