Google co-founder accuses UN of antisemitism over Gaza ‘genocide’ report

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has branded the United Nations “transparently antisemitic” after the release of a report accusing the company of profiting from “genocide” in Gaza.

The report, published by UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, alleges tech giants including Google and Amazon have financially benefited from Israel’s military actions through contracts such as Project Nimbus – a £936 million cloud services deal signed with the Israeli government in 2021.

It also claims Google sought to expand its AI offerings to the Israel Defence Forces after Hamas’s 7 October massacre, citing reporting by The Washington Post.

Responding on an internal staff forum at Google DeepMind, Brin wrote: “With all due respect, throwing around the term ‘genocide’ in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides. I would be careful citing transparently antisemitic organisations like the UN in relation to these issues.”

After screenshots of the conversation were leaked, Brin issued a follow-up statement, saying: “My comments came in response to an internal discussion that was citing a plainly biased and misleading report.”

The document’s author, Albanese, has previously faced accusations of anti-Israel bias. Jewish organisations have repeatedly called for her dismissal, citing past comments including, most infamously, a 2014 post of hers that said “America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust.” The posts of Special Rapporteur are by their nature independent from the United Nations as an organisation, and Albanese’s report has not been officially endorsed by the UN as an entity.

Tensions within Google over its ties to Israel have flared repeatedly. In 2024, the company dismissed 28 employees following protests over Project Nimbus. Nine were arrested during sit-in demonstrations at Google’s California offices, while others were locked out of work accounts and terminated by email.

A company spokesperson said the sackings were due to protesters “physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities” in “clear violation of our policies”.

In the wake of the unrest, CEO Sundar Pichai urged staff to avoid “debating disruptive issues or politics” in the workplace.

One organiser with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign said at the time: “This is a wildly disproportionate response to workers standing up for morality and holding Google accountable for its own promises.”

The UN has not responded publicly to Brin’s comments