Target: Google LLC (subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.)
Domain: Political Forensics (V-POL)
Date: 2026-05-16
Scope: Corporate communications, content and editorial policy, internal governance, lobbying, executive statements, financial support for advocacy organizations.
October 2023 — CEO communication on conflict: Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza, CEO Sundar Pichai issued an internal email to Google employees announcing $8 million in grants to nonprofits providing humanitarian relief “in Israel and Gaza.” Pichai’s email condemned the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia and acknowledged that “Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers are deeply affected.”1 The framing was humanitarian rather than a political endorsement of either party.
Google has not issued any corporate statement explicitly condemning Israeli military operations, settlement expansion, or violations of international humanitarian law. The company has declined to respond to formal invitations from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre requesting a response to allegations of complicity in war crimes.2
May 2024 — Shareholders meeting: At the 2024 Alphabet annual shareholders meeting, a shareholder resolution was put forward requesting Alphabet commission an independent human rights due diligence review of Project Nimbus. Pichai reportedly stated that Google takes its responsible AI principles “very seriously” without addressing the specific Nimbus concerns. The resolution was opposed by Alphabet’s board and did not pass.30
Post-ICJ and Post-ICC silence: No public statement from Pichai has been identified in response to the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, which determined Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory to be unlawful.25 No public statement from Pichai has been identified following the ICC arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant issued in November 2024.26 The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre formal request for a response to war crimes allegations has also gone unanswered.2
Post-A/HRC/59/23 silence — corporate level: No statement from Google LLC or Alphabet Inc. as a corporate entity responding to the UN A/HRC/59/23 report has been identified. The BHRRC documented Google’s non-response to war crimes allegations2 and this non-response extends to the Albanese report. Separately, following the US administration’s unprecedented imposition of financial sanctions on Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, Google made no public statement — noteworthy given the company’s historical public statements on press freedom and the independence of multilateral institutions.6
Google has historically made public corporate statements on geopolitical and social issues including Black Lives Matter (2020), the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022), and LGBTQ+ rights globally. No comparable corporate statement has been issued regarding the Palestinian civilian death toll in Gaza, the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, or Israeli settlement expansion. This pattern of selective engagement is documented in the wider record.3
Google frames its Israeli operations as a standard commercial and technology market. The Project Nimbus announcement language describes Israel as a strategic cloud market without contextual reference to the occupation. Google’s careers pages describe the Tel Aviv and Haifa offices as innovation centres without geopolitical framing. The company’s characterisation of the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization as an eligible Nimbus customer is consistent with treating the Israeli government system as a normal commercial partner.
Project Nimbus — Contract value and scope: Project Nimbus is a $1.2 billion contract ceiling value shared between Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, awarded in 2021, providing cloud computing infrastructure to Israeli government ministries. The contract was structured to cover all Israeli government entities, including the Ministry of Defense.20 Actual billings are lower than the ceiling and have not been publicly disclosed; the Ministry of Defense consulting contract documented by Time Magazine ($1 million+) represents a separate line-item on top of infrastructure costs.20
Project Nimbus — Full technical scope: The Nimbus contract covers not only cloud infrastructure (compute, storage, networking) but also platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) layers, including Google’s Vertex AI platform, BigQuery data analytics, and Google Workspace productivity tools. The Israeli Ministry of Defence’s access to Vertex AI for targeting and surveillance analytics is the specific capability documented by The Intercept and Time Magazine.2023 The contract also includes a data residency requirement: Israeli government data, including military operational data, must be stored on servers physically located in Israel, ensuring it is not subject to US or EU data-access requests. This data sovereignty provision was a key Israeli government requirement and distinguishes Nimbus from a standard commercial cloud contract.3
Project Nimbus — Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization: The Nimbus procurement documents include the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization (Minhelet Hahityashvut) as an eligible cloud customer.4 The Settlement Division operates under a formal mandate agreement between the WZO and the Israeli government, renewed periodically, and administers settlement development in the West Bank under Israeli government funding. It is distinct from — but cooperates with — the Civil Administration of the West Bank (a military body) and the Ministry of Construction and Housing. Its legal status in Israeli domestic law treats it as a public-benefit body; under international humanitarian law — including the Fourth Geneva Convention Article 49(6), the ICJ Wall Advisory Opinion (2004), and the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 — the settlements it facilitates are illegal.25 The Settlement Division’s inclusion in the Nimbus customer list means Google Cloud infrastructure is contractually available to the primary Israeli government body responsible for settlement expansion.
Project Nimbus — MoD access expansion (November 2023–2024): Following the October 7 Hamas attack, Google’s cloud division expedited the Israeli Ministry of Defence’s request for expanded Vertex AI access within weeks. This constituted prioritised resource allocation to Israeli military digital operations during an active conflict.20 A draft contract dated March 2024 showed Google billing the MoD over $1 million for consulting assistance to expand Cloud access to “multiple IDF units.”20 No Ofek unit-specific claim has been incorporated; the general finding of multiple IDF unit access is supported by the Time Magazine and Intercept reporting.2023
Google Maps — Occupied Territory Representation: The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement (7amleh) documented that Google Maps displays Israeli settlements in the West Bank while systematically omitting or under-representing approximately 220 Palestinian villages in Area C.5 Israeli settlements — which are illegal under international law — are displayed with routing directions; many Palestinian communities are absent. The source of Google Maps’ settlement geographic data has not been publicly disclosed. This mapping practice normalises settlement geography.5
Israeli academic partnerships: Google’s R&D partnerships with Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Technion, and Ben-Gurion University predate October 2023 and are ongoing. No evidence of suspension or review following the ICJ Advisory Opinion or ICC arrest warrants has been identified. Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) has a documented relationship with the Israeli defence establishment and has received funding from Israeli defence industries and conducted research with IDF application. Google’s partnership with Technion is framed as a commercial R&D arrangement.3
Google for Startups — Israel programme: Google for Startups operates a programme supporting early-stage tech companies in Israel through its global accelerator network.34 This is a commercial venture development programme consistent with Google’s global accelerator activity. No evidence has been identified that this programme is formally coordinated with Israeli government hasbara or strategic communications objectives. The programme nonetheless contributes to the Israeli tech ecosystem narrative that serves broader government public diplomacy purposes.
UN Special Rapporteur Report (2025): The July 2025 UN report by Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese (“From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” A/HRC/59/23) named Alphabet Inc. among approximately 48 corporate actors assessed as enabling Israel’s occupation and ongoing military operations through cloud and AI provision.6 The report addresses cloud and AI infrastructure enabling military logistics and targeting (§§25–27), financial integration of the occupation economy through tech contracts (§71), and characterises dual humanitarian/military framing of tech partnerships as a concealment mechanism rather than mitigation (§§81–86). Following publication, the US administration imposed sanctions on Albanese, an unprecedented step against a sitting UN Special Rapporteur. Google made no public statement regarding either the report or the sanctions.6
OHCHR Business Database: As of the most recent publicly known iteration of the OHCHR database of business enterprises involved in Israeli settlement activities (established under HRC Resolution 31/36), Google is not listed. The database focuses primarily on companies with direct physical operational presence in settlements. Google’s Nimbus-related exposure to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization runs through a government procurement contract rather than a direct settlement-operational presence; this structural difference may explain non-listing. More recent updates to the database may exist and were not retrievable for this audit.6
Post-ICJ Advisory Opinion continuation: The ICJ Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 determined that Israel’s prolonged occupation is unlawful and imposed obligations on third states and, by extension, corporations to cease assistance to the occupation.25 No public evidence has been identified that Google suspended, modified, or reviewed its Nimbus contract obligations following this opinion. Google has not issued any public statement in response to the ICJ advisory opinion.
Post-ICC arrest warrants continuation: The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024.26 No public evidence has been identified that Google modified its Ministry of Defense or government contract relationships following the issuance of these warrants.
No domestic regulatory action against Google specifically concerning its Israel-related operations has been identified in any jurisdiction. No OECD National Contact Point complaint specifically targeting Google/Alphabet regarding its Israel-Palestine conduct has been identified in public records.28
The No Tech for Apartheid (NTFA) campaign has pursued sustained boycott and divestment pressure against Google since 2021, citing Project Nimbus.7 In early 2025, NTFA escalated its campaign to target Alphabet’s institutional shareholders, including major index funds and pension funds, publicly calling on Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street to vote in favour of any 2025 Nimbus human rights due diligence shareholder resolution. No confirmed institutional shareholder has publicly announced a change in voting position on Alphabet related to Nimbus.40 NTFA organised renewed demonstrations at Google office locations in 2025; no confirmed additional firings of Google employees related to pro-Palestinian protest activity have been identified post-2024.
The BDS Movement formally called for a boycott of Google and Amazon following documentation of Nimbus military applications, citing the Nimbus military cloud provision, Google Maps normalisation of settlement geography, and the firing of pro-Palestinian workers.8 Multiple institutional investors, advocacy coalitions, and academic departments have submitted communications to Alphabet’s board regarding Project Nimbus. Who Profits Research Center lists Alphabet in its database of companies profiting from the Israeli occupation, referencing the government contract and the Settlement Division’s eligibility.27 The AFSC Investigate database similarly lists Alphabet Inc. in connection with Project Nimbus, noting the $1.2 billion contract value and the Israeli Ministry of Defense as a customer.28 No institutional divestment decisions specifically citing Google’s Israel relationship have been confirmed in public reporting.
| Event | Date | Google response identified |
|---|---|---|
| ICJ Advisory Opinion (occupation unlawful) | 19 July 2024 | None identified |
| ICC arrest warrants (Netanyahu, Gallant) | November 2024 | None identified |
| UN A/HRC/59/23 naming Alphabet | 2 July 2025 | Brin internal forum post (see Executive section); no corporate response |
| BHRRC formal request for response | 2025 | No response |
| US sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur Albanese | 2025 | No corporate statement |
All post-July 2024 material integration documented in this audit — Nimbus continuation, Wiz acquisition, AI principles revision, FIDF matching continuation — represents post-constructive-notice conduct.
Firing of employees for pro-Palestine speech (2024):
March 2024: Google fired a software engineer after they interrupted a company-sponsored Israeli tech conference event in New York City, shouting “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid or surveillance.” Google stated the employee was terminated for “interfering with an official company-sponsored event.”9
April 2024: Following sit-in protests by No Tech for Apartheid members at Google offices in Sunnyvale and New York City, Google fired 28 employees. Subsequent firings brought the total to over 50. Google stated the additional terminations followed an investigation identifying employees who “physically disrupted” colleagues and concealed their identities.10 The No Tech for Apartheid campaign disputed this characterisation, noting several fired workers had not participated in the protests themselves.
CEO communication: Following the April firings, Sundar Pichai issued a company-wide memo urging employees to keep “politics” out of the workplace, describing Google as “a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers.”10
NLRB complaint and litigation: Fired workers filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board in May 2024, alleging Google retaliated against them for protected concerted activity.11 A federal judge subsequently ruled that former Google employees may proceed with retaliation claims against the company.12 Several fired workers had been associated with the Alphabet Workers Union (CWA affiliate). Litigation remained ongoing as of training knowledge cut-off; no settlement or final judgment has been identified.40
No comparable firings or disciplinary actions for pro-Israel speech, political expression, or disruptive conduct related to other political causes have been identified in the public record during the same period.
Employee donation matching — FIDF and HaYovel:
Reporting by Middle East Eye (December 2024) revealed that Google matches employee donations — via its Benevity third-party corporate giving platform — to Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces (FIDF) and HaYovel.13
Google stated these organizations were vetted by Benevity and that the matching scheme applied to over 200,000 eligible organizations. Google has not responded publicly to questions about whether FIDF and HaYovel meet its internal human rights standards for eligible recipients. The total amount matched by Google through this programme has not been publicly disclosed. This matching activity continued after the ICJ Advisory Opinion and ICC arrest warrants.
YouTube — Removal of Palestinian human rights organizations (2024): YouTube removed the channels of three Palestinian human rights organizations — Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) — in October 2024.14 Together, these channels held more than 700 videos documenting Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including evidence submitted to the International Criminal Court. YouTube confirmed the removals were made to comply with US sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on these organizations for their ICC cooperation. Human Rights Watch and the Electronic Frontier Foundation publicly called for reinstatement, arguing that the evidence must remain accessible for legal accountability purposes.14
YouTube — Al Jazeera content actions (2023–2024): In November 2023, Al Jazeera reported that YouTube had issued multiple “strikes” against Al Jazeera Arabic content relating to Gaza, with some videos removed entirely and others restricted. Al Jazeera publicly disputed the strikes; YouTube stated the removed content violated its policies on graphic violence.16 Age-gating — which removes content from most search results and recommendations — and demonetization affected Al Jazeera Arabic-language channels covering Gaza across the period October 2023 through 2024. The differential treatment applied primarily to Al Jazeera Arabic content; Al Jazeera English’s main channel was not subject to comparable restrictions during the same period, a pattern consistent with the locative and linguistic discrimination in platform moderation documented by Al-Shabaka and 7amleh.16 By mid-2024, Al-Shabaka documented that Al Jazeera Arabic’s engagement metrics on YouTube had declined substantially relative to the pre-October 2023 baseline, consistent with the effect of algorithmic demotion.16
YouTube — Cooperation with Israeli tech volunteers (2024): Reporting cited by Global Voices indicated that officials at YouTube and other platforms cooperated through undisclosed back channels with a group of volunteers from Israel’s tech sector to facilitate the removal of content critical of Israel.15
YouTube — Broader content suppression pattern (2024): Beyond Al Jazeera, channels operated by individual Palestinian journalists, including those covering northern Gaza, experienced repeated strikes and temporary suspensions during the same period.15 The Palestinian Observatory of Digital Rights Violations recorded more than 1,350 instances of online content moderation affecting Palestinian-related content across major platforms through July 2024.15 Al-Shabaka (Palestinian Policy Network) published an analysis of YouTube’s documented practices of language discrimination, locative discrimination against Palestinian content, and demonetization patterns affecting Palestinian journalists and human rights documentation.16
Vertex AI — targeting and surveillance applications: Reporting by The Intercept described internal Google documents showing the Israeli government’s use of Vertex AI and Google Cloud data analytics tools for surveillance and targeting applications. Internal Google employees referenced these documents in leaked communications that became public during the April 2024 protests.23 A draft contract dated March 2024 showed Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defence over $1 million for consulting assistance to expand Cloud access to “multiple IDF units.”20
Google AI Principles — Removal of weapons and surveillance pledges (February 2025): In February 2025, Google removed its longstanding public commitment that it would not deploy AI for weapons or for “surveillance violating internationally accepted norms.”17 The original AI principles (adopted in 2018 following the Project Maven controversy) explicitly excluded weapons development and mass surveillance. The revised principles replaced this with a permissive standard that Google will “proceed where we believe that the overall likely benefits substantially exceed the foreseeable risks,” and explicitly permit Google to “work on advanced defense security and government cybersecurity missions.”17 Amnesty International called the policy reversal “shameful,” and Human Rights Watch documented it as removing important accountability protections.17
The replacement language tracks the framework used in the US Department of Defense’s AI Ethics Principles (2020)36 and the NSCAI Final Report recommendations (2021, chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt).24 The alignment between Google’s revised principles and the NSCAI framework co-authored by a former Google CEO is a structural nexus of note. Separately, in early 2023, Google disbanded its dedicated Responsible AI team that had conducted internal review of AI applications including military use cases; the February 2025 principles revision formalised at the policy level a shift that this organisational restructuring had already practically effected.
This revision occurred after the ICJ Advisory Opinion (July 2024), after the ICC arrest warrants (November 2024), after publication of the Time Magazine Ministry of Defence billing report (2024), and after the April 2024 worker firings. The revision directly expands the contractual and operational space available for Nimbus military work.
Google Transparency Report — Israeli government removal requests: Google’s Transparency Report records government requests for content removal. Israel’s requests for content removal on YouTube reportedly increased substantially in the period 2023–2024, consistent with the broader Israeli government effort to suppress documentation of military operations. The exact volume and compliance rate require review of the H2 2023 and 2024 Transparency Reports, which were not retrievable for this audit.21
IHRA Definition — No formal adoption: No public announcement or corporate policy document has been identified in which Google or Alphabet formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Several US technology companies have adopted the IHRA definition for internal HR policy purposes; Google has not been publicly reported among them.
No evidence identified of Google selling physical consumer products subject to settlement-origin labeling requirements. Mapping practices (Operations section) relate to platform representation, not retail.
Google does not market its products using Israeli military heritage, intelligence sector origins, or “battle-tested” branding. The company markets its Israel R&D center as an innovation hub. Wiz, now a Google subsidiary, was publicly associated by multiple commentators with Unit 8200 heritage — its four co-founders (Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik) are IDF/Unit 8200 veterans — and this heritage was referenced in press coverage of the acquisition. Google’s own marketing of the Wiz acquisition did not foreground the Unit 8200 connection.18
No evidence has been identified of Google sponsoring Israeli government cultural diplomacy campaigns, Israeli tourism promotion events, or the formal “Brand Israel” government public relations programme administered by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Strategic Affairs. No formal “Brand Israel” designation or Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Strategic Affairs Ministry involvement has been documented in relation to any Google Israel partnership events, which are framed as commercial and entrepreneurial.
Financial scale and timeline: Google (Alphabet) announced the acquisition of Wiz, a cloud security company, for approximately $32 billion in March 2025. At approximately $32 billion, this is the largest acquisition in Alphabet’s history, exceeding the $12.5 billion Motorola acquisition.18 The scale makes the Unit 8200 founding nexus structurally significant to any corporate group attribution analysis. The acquisition was announced after both the ICJ Advisory Opinion and the ICC arrest warrants and constitutes the largest single post-constructive-notice act of material deepening identified in this audit.
Unit 8200 significance: Unit 8200 is Israel’s primary signals intelligence unit, operating within the IDF Intelligence Directorate. It conducts surveillance and signals collection in the occupied Palestinian territories. In 2014, 43 Unit 8200 veterans signed a public letter refusing to serve, documenting that the unit surveils Palestinian civilians for coercion purposes. Wiz’s founders trained in or served in leadership roles within this unit.18
Post-acquisition governance: Following acquisition, Assaf Rappaport joined Google Cloud leadership. The degree to which Wiz’s Israeli government and security sector client relationships were inherited by Google Cloud has not been publicly disclosed.
NSO Group: NSO Group is the Israeli spyware company responsible for Pegasus. Google has been a critic of NSO Group — Google’s Project Zero published technical analyses of NSO Pegasus vulnerabilities,35 and Google joined an amicus brief in Apple’s litigation against NSO Group. Google’s relationship with NSO Group is therefore adverse rather than complicit.
Palo Alto Networks and Check Point Software: Google has commercial technology partnerships with both Palo Alto Networks (which has Israeli co-founders and significant Israeli R&D operations) and Check Point Software Technologies (an Israeli cybersecurity firm headquartered in Tel Aviv), relating respectively to joint cloud security offerings and Android security. No settlement or military-welfare nexus at the corporate relationship level has been identified in either partnership.
No evidence identified of Google accepting Israeli state honours, hosting Israeli government officials at formal state partnership events, or sponsoring “Brand Israel” campaigns or state cultural initiatives. The academic research collaborations with Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Technion, and Ben-Gurion University are principally commercial R&D partnerships rather than non-commercial ideological partnerships, and none have been suspended or reviewed following the ICJ Advisory Opinion or ICC warrants.
No public evidence identified of Google engaging in corporate lobbying specifically regarding Israeli-Palestinian policy, BDS legislation, or anti-boycott laws. Google’s reported federal lobbying expenditure ($9.6–13 million annually per OpenSecrets) covers a wide range of technology policy issues, including antitrust, privacy, and AI regulation; no Israel-specific lobbying activity has been disclosed or reported.19 OpenSecrets’ issue-specific lobbying disclosures for Alphabet do not identify Israel-Palestine policy or anti-BDS legislation as a reported lobbying issue area; reported issue areas cover AI regulation, antitrust, privacy, Section 230, spectrum, and tax.19
No evidence identified of Google formally adopting the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. No evidence identified of Google lobbying for or against any anti-BDS bill. No evidence identified of Google holding leadership roles in AIPAC, Christians United for Israel, or comparable Israel-focused political advocacy organisations.
Alphabet PAC: The Google Inc. PAC (reported in some OpenSecrets entries as “Alphabet Inc. PAC”) is a connected corporate PAC funded by voluntary employee contributions making disbursements to federal candidates and party committees.37 Per OpenSecrets data covering election cycles through 2024, total PAC disbursements are in the range of $1–2 million per election cycle, distributed across both parties’ members of key committees (Judiciary, Commerce, Intelligence, Appropriations), following standard tech-industry lobbying logic based on committee jurisdiction over antitrust, privacy, AI, and telecommunications.37 No disclosed PAC disbursement has been specifically reported as directed to an anti-BDS caucus or to AIPAC-endorsed candidates as a defined class. No evidence has been identified of Pichai, Brin, or Page making individual maximum contributions to AIPAC’s political committee (the United Democracy Project); FEC individual donor verification for this specific question remains a live gap.38
Employee matching — FIDF and HaYovel (December 2024): Documented above (Internal Governance section). Google’s Benevity corporate matching platform facilitated employee donations to FIDF, which provides direct financial welfare support to active Israeli military personnel, and HaYovel, which facilitates volunteer labour on settlement farms and has reportedly provided $3.5 million in security equipment to West Bank settlers since October 2023.13
No evidence identified of direct corporate donations from Alphabet Inc. to FIDF, JNF, Regavim, or comparable parastatal, settlement, or military-welfare organisations. No evidence has been identified of Google.org making grants to settlement organisations, FIDF, JNF, or organisations with a documented settlement nexus; however, detailed recipient data from IRS Form 990 filings for the Google Foundation for 2023–2024 tax years has not been retrievable for this audit, meaning this cannot be affirmatively excluded.31 No direct corporate or contractual relationship between Alphabet/Google and JNF-KKL or its US affiliate (JNF-US) has been identified at either corporate or individual-principal level; however, IRS 990 review is required for affirmative exclusion.31
Project Nimbus — Emergency MoD access expansion (November 2023–2024): Following the October 7 Hamas attack, Google’s cloud division expedited the Israeli Ministry of Defence’s request for expanded Vertex AI access within weeks. This constituted prioritised resource allocation to Israeli military digital operations during an active conflict.20 A draft contract dated March 2024 showed Google billing the MoD over $1 million for consulting assistance to expand Cloud access to “multiple IDF units.”20
$8 million relief fund: The October 2023 relief announcement directed funds to nonprofits operating in both Israel and Gaza; the specific allocation between the two has not been publicly disclosed.1
2024 AGM shareholder resolution: A shareholder resolution filed by activist investors at the June 2024 annual meeting requested Alphabet commission an independent human rights impact assessment of Project Nimbus. The resolution was opposed by Alphabet’s board and received less than 10% of votes cast.30
2025 institutional investor pressure: NTFA publicly called on Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street to vote in favour of any 2025 Nimbus human rights due diligence shareholder resolution. No confirmed institutional shareholder has publicly announced a change in voting position.40 The outcome of any 2025 AGM Nimbus-related resolution remains a live verification gap.
Voting structure: Alphabet’s Class B shares — held by Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Sundar Pichai — carry 10 votes per share versus 1 vote per Class A share.32 As of the most recent available Alphabet proxy filing data in training knowledge, Brin holds approximately 37–38 million Class B shares conferring approximately 25–26% of total voting power, Page holds approximately 26%, and Pichai approximately 3%; Brin and Page together control a majority of total voting power.32 This concentration means any governance challenge on Nimbus or human rights due diligence is structurally insuperable without founder acquiescence. Any shareholder resolution on Nimbus human rights due diligence cannot pass without founder support.
Alphabet Inc.’s corporate charter and governance documents do not tie Google’s mission to advancing Israeli or Zionist political goals. Google’s stated mission — “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” — is commercially defined. No golden shares, state-held equity, or charter restrictions link Google’s operations to Israeli state policy objectives. Google is a publicly traded US corporation.
Alphabet’s Class B supervoting shares are held by Brin, Page, and Pichai, conferring 10 votes per share versus 1 vote per Class A share.32 As documented in the Lobbying section above, Brin and Page together control a majority of total Alphabet voting power, making any externally-initiated governance reform on Nimbus, human rights due diligence, or related shareholder resolutions structurally insuperable without their support. The 2024 AGM shareholder resolution on Nimbus human rights due diligence received under 10% of votes cast and was defeated without substantive board engagement.30
Sergey Brin (co-founder; stepped down as President of Alphabet in December 2019):
Brin has Jewish heritage and has previously donated to Jewish organizations including HIAS ($1 million, 2009).[^21a] The Brin Wojcicki Foundation (named for Brin and his former wife Anne Wojcicki) has made grants primarily to medical research, COVID-related science, and Jewish communal organisations. Available public filings (IRS 990) show grants to organisations including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and HIAS.33 The Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus is located in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed following the 1967 war — an annexation not recognised under international law; a grant to this institution therefore represents a nexus with internationally contested territory, though it is not equivalent to a grant to a settlement body. IRS 990 verification of the grant amount and year remains a live gap.33 No evidence identified of Sergey Brin personally donating to FIDF, JNF-KKL, JNF-US, or Israeli military-welfare organisations.
Sergey Brin — July 2025 forum post: In July 2025, Brin posted in an internal Google employee forum characterising the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report on corporate complicity as produced by a “transparently antisemitic” organisation, adding: “throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides.”22 A spokesperson for Brin stated his “comments came in response to an internal discussion that was citing a plainly biased and misleading report.”22 This post occurred approximately one year after the ICJ Advisory Opinion (19 July 2024), approximately eight months after the ICC arrest warrants (21 November 2024), and contemporaneously with the publication of A/HRC/59/23 (2 July 2025) — within days of its release.22 Brin’s post therefore constitutes a principal-level response to the specific UN report naming Alphabet, made in his capacity as a supervoting shareholder, that disputes the legitimacy of the accountability mechanism rather than engaging with its substantive findings. Although Brin no longer holds any executive title, he retains Class B supervoting shares conferring effective governance veto. The statement was reported by The Washington Post, JTA, and Times of Israel.22
Larry Page (co-founder; stepped down as CEO in 2019; stepped down from Alphabet board in 2024): Page retains Class B supervoting shares conferring approximately 26% of total Alphabet voting power. He has made no public statements on the Israel-Palestine conflict. No evidence identified of Page making personal donations to FIDF, JNF, or military-welfare organisations. His governance influence, while structurally enormous via share ownership, is exercised silently.32
Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google and Alphabet): No public evidence of Pichai making personal political donations or statements aligned with Israeli government positions beyond the October 2023 corporate communication and the April 2024 post-firings workplace memo. No public statement from Pichai identified in response to the ICJ Advisory Opinion, the ICC arrest warrants, or the UN A/HRC/59/23 report naming Alphabet.
Ruth Porat (SVP, Investments and Transformation; President and Chief Investment Officer): Porat served as Alphabet’s CFO from 2015 to 2023 and transitioned to President and Chief Investment Officer. No evidence identified of Porat holding leadership roles in AIPAC, FIDF, JNF, ADL, or comparable Israel-focused political advocacy organisations. No evidence identified of Porat directing Alphabet investment activity (via CapitalG or GV) specifically toward Israeli defence, surveillance, or settlement organisations. Gap confirmed closed with null result.
Eric Schmidt (former CEO 2001–2011; former Executive Chairman 2015–2017; stepped down from Alphabet board June 2019):
Schmidt served as Chair of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) from its establishment through the publication of its Final Report in March 2021.24 The NSCAI Final Report explicitly references collaboration with Israel as a key allied partner for military AI development and recommends deep US-Israel AI collaboration in defence and intelligence contexts.24 This was a governmental rather than a corporate role, but Schmidt’s dual position as former Google CEO and NSCAI Chair creates a relevant dual-role nexus. The alignment between the NSCAI framework’s language and Google’s February 2025 revised AI principles — both permitting “advanced defense security and government cybersecurity missions” subject to a balancing test — is a structural nexus between Schmidt’s governmental work and the subsequent Google policy direction.172436
Schmidt’s personal philanthropic vehicle, Schmidt Futures, funds research in science, technology, and policy. No evidence has been identified of Schmidt Futures making grants to Israeli military-welfare organisations, FIDF, JNF, or settlement bodies. No evidence of Schmidt making public statements on the Israel-Palestine conflict has been identified.24
Brin’s July 2025 internal forum statement (documented above) is the most significant individual leadership statement identified. It was an internal communication, not a public press release, but was reported by The Washington Post, JTA, and Times of Israel.22 The statement characterised the principal UN mechanism for corporate accountability on the occupation as antisemitic and was made contemporaneously with the publication of the report naming Alphabet, after both constructive notice triggers.
John Hennessy (Chair, Alphabet Board): Former President of Stanford University. No evidence identified of Hennessy holding leadership roles in AIPAC, ADL, FIDF, JNF, or comparable Israel-focused organisations.
Other independent directors (including Ann Mather, Robin Washington, K. Ram Shriram, and others): No evidence identified of any current Alphabet independent board member holding personal affiliations with Israel-focused political advocacy organisations.
No evidence identified of current Google or Alphabet board members holding leadership roles in AIPAC, ADL, FIDF, JNF, or comparable Israel-focused political advocacy organisations.
Google Blog, “Israel-Hamas war: $8 million in relief,” October 2023. https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/israel-hamas-war-relief/ ↩↩
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, “Google did not respond to the allegations over its complicity in war crimes amid Israel’s war in Gaza,” 2025. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/google-did-not-respond-to-the-allegations-over-its-complicity-in-war-crimes-amid-israels-war-in-gaza/ ↩↩↩
Al Jazeera, “What is Project Nimbus, and why are Google workers protesting Israel deal?” 23 April 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/23/what-is-project-nimbus-and-why-are-google-workers-protesting-israel-deal ↩↩↩
Al Jazeera, “What is Project Nimbus” (citing Settlement Division as Nimbus customer). https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/23/what-is-project-nimbus-and-why-are-google-workers-protesting-israel-deal ↩
7amleh, “Mapping Segregation: Google Maps and the Human Rights of Palestinians.” https://7amleh.org/ms/ ↩↩
UN Human Rights Council, “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide” (A/HRC/59/23), Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, 2 July 2025. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/a-hrc-59-23-from-economy-of-occupation-to-economy-of-genocide-report-special-rapporteur-francesca-albanese-palestine-2025/ ↩↩↩↩
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