In a secretive twist that blurs the line between technology and state surveillance, the intertwined Silicon Valley Israel relationship emerges as Google and Amazon secretly agreed to develop a bespoke, air-gapped cloud computing platform for Israel, codenamed “Project Q,” according to a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call.
The highly classified contract between the Big Tech giants and Israel, negotiated directly with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, will allow Google and Amazon to directly profit from Israel’s military operations against civilians in warzones.
Two of the world’s largest cloud providers accepted astonishing demands from the Israeli government under a $1.2 billion deal, under Project Nimbus. The agreement grants Israel sweeping control over its cloud-stored data and, critics say, putting both cloud giants in ethically dark territory.
The very notion of Amazon and Google apartheid supporting operations has taken a much darker turn of events.
Israel Surveillance Technology
At the heart of the Nimbus project lies an unorthodox communications system the “winking mechanism” clearly showing the Israel tech contracts lobbying.
According to leaked documents, the tech against apartheid requires Google and Amazon to send coded payments to Israel’s Ministry of Finance whenever they are obliged by a foreign government to share Israeli data. The payment amount corresponds to the requesting country’s telephone code for example, $270 (1,000 shekels) for the US (+1) or $1,025 (3,900 shekels) for Italy (+39), indicating which nation received the data.
If gag orders prohibit even such indirect notifications, the companies must reportedly pay $30,000 (100,000 shekels) as an alert.
“It seems awfully cute and something that if the US government or, more to the point, a court were to understand, I don’t think they would be particularly sympathetic,” a former US government lawyer told The Guardian.
The mechanism of the Google no tech for apartheid movement, investigators suggest, does not serve Israel’s interest in maintaining control over sensitive intelligence and military data, especially amid fears it could fall under the jurisdiction of US or European courts.
Legal experts called the system “highly unusual” and potentially at odds with US confidentiality laws surrounding subpoenas and data handovers.
The level surveillance technology Israel is imposing cannot be denied, as it stands as mere wrongdoing towards civilians.
Both Google and Amazon defended the project as a standard sovereign cloud deal for a nation’s data security, but leaked documents exposed the truth behind the project.
“The idea that we would evade our legal obligations to the US government as a US company, or in any other country, is categorically wrong,” a Google spokesperson said.
An Amazon representative echoed this stance, emphasizing the company’s “rigorous global process” for responding to lawful orders.
Leaked documents confirmed that the cloud giants’ infrastructure is explicitly designed and developed for Israel’s military workloads, making Google and Amazon active participants in Israel’s ongoing wars in the Middle East.
It is worth noting that Project Q is an indispensable digital backbone for the Israeli government – led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – whose actions are also under severe international scrutiny for human rights violations.
Any Tech Company Complicity with Israel
Beyond the secret code and the exposed Israel Silicon Valley affairs, the Nimbus agreement apparently ties Google and Amazon to restrictions that exclude them from limiting Israel’s use of their cloud technology even in cases where human rights concerns arise.
The Google no tech for apartheid movement, led by formed employees by the Chrome-parent, exposed and demands any work on Project Nimbus to end, as it makes it “easier for the Israeli government to surveil Palestinians and force them out of their land,” according to BDS’s official page.
The documents state Israel is “entitled to migrate to the cloud or generate in the cloud any content data they wish,” including for Big Tech Israel military or intelligence purposes.
A source close to the project confirmed that there can be “no restrictions” on how Israeli authorities use the platforms, means even if its military operations violated human rights in Gaza, or the occupied territories, Google and Amazon could not suspend or reverse access for the IDF.
Microsoft, on the other hand, recently cut off Israel’s military from using certain AI tools after determining they violated its terms of service. Under the Nimbus deal, however, such action would “discriminate” against the Silicon Valley Israel relationship and could trigger financial penalties.
“The article’s insinuation that Israel compels companies to breach the law is baseless,” said a spokesperson for Israel’s Finance Ministry defended the arrangement, adding the US tech support for Israel firms is “bound by stringent contractual obligations that safeguard Israel’s vital interests.”
Still, critics argue that Nimbus exposes how major US tech companies have entangled themselves in the Israel’s surveillance and wars on civilians. Through Silicon Valley secret Israel cloud contracts such as this, the Californian-based tech sector’s tools, once symbols of openness and innovation, have become instruments of secrecy and control.
As one former security official put it, the “winking mechanism” might be “kind of brilliant, but it’s risky.” And perhaps, at that risk, lies the uncomfortable truth about digital rights and Israel, the world’s growing dependence on cloud empires and the governments willing to shape them.
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